TLC: The Life Chat

The TLC Family Dinner

• Petina Walsh • Season 1 • Episode 1

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In our very first (official) episode of The Life Chat, we (Cassie, Tina and Lauren) spill the tea on who we are, how we met, and why we’re still stuck together after all these years. Spoiler: we’ve been mates since we were 12 & 13.

Cassie shares her story of marrying young, raising her kids, and going through a big life reset after her separation (with plenty of laughs and love along the way). Tina talks about meeting her Irish hubby on a night out, with her ex, no less, and the wild ride from being a pilot to running a natural skincare biz. And Lauren opens up about marrying her high school sweetheart, facing backlash for her health beliefs, and how all that drama pushed her into a new chapter of self-discovery and business bravery.

We’re here to chat real life, the good, the messy, and the hilarious. Expect plenty of laughs, lots of love, and some juicy chats on everything from homeschooling and health to religion, politics, and why the 9-to-5 grind just ain’t it.

Catch Tina in the OmMade Wellness Hub

https://www.instagram.com/ommadewellnesshub/

See what Lauren is up to at Eco Play Therapy

https://www.instagram.com/ecoplaytherapy/

Let Cassie Concierge your life at Soluna Concierge. Currently on a break but relaunching soon.

https://www.instagram.com/soluna_concierge/


MIC3:

Welcome to The Life Chat. So backstory, we're gonna introduce ourselves for the first episode'cause people need to know who the beep we are. you can say

MIC2:

that's you. You're allowed to.

MIC3:

that. I do swear doesn't make me a bad person. Apparently. According to statistics, people that swear are quite intelligent.

MIC2:

What does I say for you, Lauren? She's not

MIC3:

a dumb ass. No, we love Loz. She's just beautiful. She doesn't swear, but we may get her to drop an F-bomb at some stage. Alright. Okay. My name is Cassie. I am the C in TLC, and we are called the Life Chat. Get it. TLC.

MIC2:

We

MIC3:

get it? Okay. I am normally the quiet one in terms of I sit back a bit, the girls talk a bit more than me. Would you agree? No. Oh,

MIC2:

Oh, I don't know what you mean. No.

MIC3:

Well, we'll listen to the test

MIC2:

I'm being sarcastic. We do talk more than her. Really? Oh, well you definitely do on a plane

MIC3:

anyway. Okay. So

MIC2:

she talks when it's good and she's got so good.

MIC3:

I nominated my, alright. Well see what I mean. They're just, yeah, no one wanted to start. Of the introduction, so I put myself forward because normally I don't, I sit back a little bit, so I'm going

MIC2:

Okay, go. I'm proud of you.

MIC3:

Backstory. All right, let's start. We all met when we were 13 years old. Girls. Yeah. Year eight. First year of high school. School. Oh, sorry. yeah, 12. Tina and Lauren A. Little bit earlier. Yeah. Uh, what about HIlde? No, Hilds year Yeah. Year

MIC2:

We all First day. Year

MIC3:

Yeah. So Hilde. Is another important piece of this puzzle. There's four of us basically that have been besties since 13. Yeah, so,

MIC2:

and how old are we now? Cassie,

MIC3:

hooowee I am the old bag. I actually am turning 50 this year. Woo. The girls are 49. Still

MIC2:

forties about to 49 now We are 48.

MIC3:

Thank you very much. I failed year two. Alright, let's just get that out now. High

MIC2:

did you What? She said I failed

MIC3:

you two. Who the fuck fails to you two?

MIC2:

were meant to intelligent because you swear. Because she swear she started swearing and

MIC3:

then got intelligent. Oh, okay.

MIC2:

Hang on.

MIC3:

Anyway.

MIC2:

Doesn't matter. We

MIC3:

what?

MIC2:

together. It doesn't

MIC3:

matter. Best thing I ever did, because I was in the year that these girls are, that have been my lifelong friends, meant to be, meant to be dumb ass, meant to be. So it wasn't the most amazing upbringing, but there was lots, sort of good points to it. I had a marriage that failed very early on. I was very young. I had a child, very young. Best thing I ever did, by the way, love her. She, oh my God, she's the best thing that ever happened in my life. I was on my own for a little bit with her. Then I met my second husband who is. Fucking amazing.

MIC2:

and

MIC3:

the best man. I had two more children with him. We've spent 26 plus years together. Amazing. We've been through trials and tribulations, both of us. He was the father to my child that I had with my first marriage and was so amazing to her. We've brought up three children together. We are no longer together. That's a story in itself, but I love him. We're good friends. It's been difficult. I have had some. mental health issues and other health issues over the time. And right now I am in a very good place. We'll go into all the ins and outs of my life later on, But I could also have not got to this point without these beautiful women sitting right next to me. We have been brought together right now in this place at this time. We decided to do a podcast a little while ago. These beautiful women will tell their stories. They have had trials and tribulation, adversity in their life as we all have. And now going forward, we are just wanting to bring different topics. Our lives together and if we can help other people. Fucking navigate this world, then that's what we need to do. So I'm gonna hand over now to Tina.

MIC2:

Okay, so I am Tina, the T in TLC, Basically these girls got me through high school. I met my husband while he was here from Ireland on a, working holiday visa. And met him in a pub while I was out with my ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, who is now his wife and mother of his children. Oh. And we are still friends.

MIC3:

That's And

MIC2:

Paul was treading on his toes in the pub and. No put, no, sorry. Wrong way around. Steve was treading on my husband's toes in the pub and said oh, you should come and meet my friend. And that's where we met. And then, two weeks later he asked me to marry him'cause his

MIC3:

Visa

MIC2:

running out and we are married nearly 20 years on. That's great. So yeah, and now we have a beautiful 12-year-old going on 21. And she's the boss of the house and the boss of me. And I didn't think anyone would be able to rule me, but she

MIC3:

need either Tina. Holy.

MIC2:

Yeah. She's so in charge of me. It's not funny.

MIC3:

Also you are super inspiring'cause you're an entrepreneur, you have your own business. We'll go into that more in depth later on.

MIC2:

Yes. I had many jobs. from gyprocking to. Being a pilot to working in Japan a few different things.

MIC3:

you tried to breeze over all of that Yeah, because we never want to shine a light on Yeah, this girl was amazing, so

MIC2:

Aw.

MIC3:

Just wanted to highlight that.

MIC2:

So I met my husband after working on a cattle station. We went to Queensland, flew planes, come back to Adelaide. I went and did naturopathy and ended up. Doing natural skincare now teas all into the natural health and hate vaccines.

MIC3:

She's totally my witchdoctor

MIC2:

I've just the OmMade wellness hub as well. Which I have joined. And honestly, this is not because you're my friend, the only skincare I use is yours and the only herbal tea I drink are yours. And that's not because it's you

MIC3:

obviously. That's how I

MIC2:

started it. Yes.

MIC3:

but I'm

MIC2:

not staying with it because it's you. I'm staying with it because it's amazing and it works.

MIC3:

You know what? It's

MIC2:

funny'cause we don't do this. No.

MIC3:

we don't talk about ourselves ever. No, we don't.

MIC2:

together, we don't

MIC3:

we talk about so many issues. Yeah. We do talk about. Things that are happening.

MIC2:

But to go back and try and work out, okay, who am I?

MIC3:

What's

MIC2:

story? We've actually never done it. But also we've gone our separate ways throughout our lives as well. Like we may have met when we were 12, 13. Yeah. But there are times there that we, you were doing our own thing and a lot of the things we are gonna talk about each other might not even know.

MIC3:

that's right. Absolutely.

MIC2:

been best friends for over 30 years. Yeah. But there were chunks

MIC3:

we missed,

MIC2:

didn't see each

MIC3:

other. Yeah.

MIC2:

And we are known for catching up when we are in a really good place. And then

MIC3:

withdrawing,

MIC2:

do you think? And going a bit, yeah. Because we don't wanna bother

MIC3:

each other when we're in place. Yeah, absolutely.

MIC2:

are getting way, way

MIC3:

better at that.

MIC2:

Mm-hmm. But I must say, when I've gone through my hardest times, I. Tend to go

MIC3:

retreat myself,

MIC2:

so I don't really share. So this is, we are not gonna

MIC3:

do that from now on though. No, we'll do that. I think we've all done that through the years.

MIC2:

'Cause you think that, oh, they don't wanna know about that. They've got their own problems.

MIC3:

Yeah. And

MIC2:

then of course once you say it, you can't take it back. So then the next time you catch up, when you just wanna have a good old fun laugh and pretend like nothing's happening, it's like, oh,

MIC3:

because they know. But yeah, that's part of it's best friends, isn't it? It is. That's right. And that's what we've had, we've learned now we're sisters. Like

MIC2:

we are sisters. We just, we

MIC3:

tell all the stuff and the bullshit and the, if we're having a shit time or whatever, it's not like I. Want you to fix it or take the burden on, I just wanna tell you just need to know and a problem shared is a problem halved it. It's just someone listening, someone that cares. And you just need to. Vent or whatever, and we've learned that now. I think that's part of maturing too. We've all got our own lives. We all have our problems. We don't wanna burden anyone. We all, we realize that now we can just say it. We say it feels good's true. Have a couple of drinks maybe, or a cry, or not even a cry. Just laugh. We have very dark humor sometimes.

MIC2:

I think it's a really important point about not wanting a solution. But with us, we don't. We're not always coming up with a solution.

MIC3:

Often we don't even offer it. We go, just a hug.

MIC2:

just a hug.

MIC3:

We just go, oh, that's really fucked up. Sorry. That's bad. Yeah,

MIC2:

Before it gets better.

MIC3:

my, Oh, you think this is

MIC2:

bad day? Or you wait? The bad days are still coming. Hang on. Can you just explain what you're talking about? She a really, really, really bad day. A really bad day. It was a really, really bad day. It

MIC3:

a shit

MIC2:

day. The day before was scary. For us both. And then that day I think we were like, oh my gosh, we can't do this by ourself. We need Tina.

MIC3:

And

MIC2:

we like, right, let's go see Tina. Maybe we can do it. The three of us can do it. And we're driving down the freeway and it's, it's kind of a blur now. Like it was a bit surreal, wasn't And then you were telling me worst day of my life and I was sort of foreseeing some stuff that you're gonna have to deal with and I just turn around and look at you and go, it is bad, but it's gonna get worse.

MIC3:

But she just didn't know whether

MIC2:

laugh or cry and she was just in shock.

MIC3:

We did laugh. We actually laughed.

MIC2:

Thanks so much. You're such a good friend. No, I have no solutions, but this is gonna get worse. I love it. That is

MIC3:

brutal reality from the best of friends. That's your brutal reality.

MIC2:

stuff. Yeah. You'll have to keep, you'll have to subscribe if you wanna know the full story.

MIC3:

Lauren is very important too, and we need to hear about her now. And Lauren, stop deflecting. You need to speak about yourself now.

MIC2:

name's Lauren. That's the L in TLC. So my story's very different because I married my high school boyfriend. The, we all went to school with him. We were all friends with him. We all hung out. I snagged him. hung out with his older brother

MIC3:

Yeah. Yes. one that I married was the Surfy and the footy player

MIC2:

and the blonde. And everybody wanted him. And I got him

MIC3:

and I still have him. She's actually saying,

MIC2:

Yes.

MIC3:

true. I

MIC2:

I still have him. How many years later? We've been married 27. I think we've been together like 35 years. That's crazy.

MIC3:

On that 34 So

MIC2:

married, quite young kids. Quite young. Really young. Three kids. And pretty much I think my life was my husband and my three kids for about 20 years. I've worked administration. I've worked in kindergarten and school and after school and study, actually I did wanna be a nurse. So after my first son, Justyn, I really wanted to be a midwife. To study. You couldn't do midwifery straight, so I had to do nursing, so I did that. Got pregnant again, so I deferred. Hannah, middle went back for another year, got pregnant again,

MIC3:

deferred.

MIC2:

And then third one

MIC3:

was born

MIC2:

with, lots of medical complications. So I spent that most of my life in a hospital for a good five years. So that put me right off being a nurse

MIC3:

'cause I

MIC2:

already spending way too much time in the hospital. So I wasn't interested Being there to be there. So my career changed towards education. I don't know, I actually just fell into that through the kindy that my kids went to. And the afterschool care up the road, somebody recommended me. So I went there and I have been there for all up 20 years. Wow. I reckon between the OSH and the kindy and the school, about 20 years. I do wanna keep it brief, so that's been ticking along nicely. Husband kids. School studying. And then just quickly, I know we're not gonna go into it, but I don't know how many years ago, four-ish years ago when the C Word happened I was canceled big time because I was too scared to take an experimental. Drug and put poison into my body that I didn't know what was in there effects were going to be. I think I was very good at my

MIC3:

job Bit lost. Why were you scared? Because you'd had a flu vaccination that made you sick. Yeah, that's true

MIC2:

So I've never, had a flu vaccine ever. And then one year, 10 years ago, everybody in my workplace was getting it and it was free and it encouraged. And then I called, I kind of did get the vibe that if you don't have it, and then you. Turn around and take a heap of time off work'cause you've got the flu that's gonna be frowned upon. And I was very new to the job. It was my first year, very appreciative to have this awesome job. I still am. I and so I just did it even think about it. And yeah, of the worst decisions I ever made.'cause for years and years I suffered, reactions to from, vision. pins and needles, numbness cysts, growing on my spine. Restless leg syndrome. I was diagnosed with viral neuritis. So I took the vaccine in April when everyone else did. I've never had a flu in my life, actually. I'm very healthy, very, I. Very blessed with a good immune system, and I've never had a flu in my life. And then in 2015, in April, when I took the flu vaccine in 2015, in August, I got the flu, horrendous flu. It lasted eight weeks. I still had it in October. It was horrendous. I've never had a flu vaccine since, and I've never had the flu since.

MIC3:

So then going forward, so obviously you'd be very, very cautious

MIC2:

I have, I have fo um, a folder on me at the doctor surgery about, and it, I never said it was a vaccine injury. A physician told me. It, I, it looks as though the most likely scenario here is that when you took the flu vaccine,

MIC3:

it got into your

MIC2:

nervous system and attacked your nervous system. It's documented

MIC3:

an autoimmune

MIC2:

disease. It's very, very rare, but it does happen. But, it would look as though you have an autoimmune disease because of the vaccine, and that was enough for me to never get a flu

MIC3:

vaccine ever again.

MIC2:

I could never have foreseen what was coming, but that was enough for me to say, okay, well I'll never get a flu vaccine ever again, and I've just spent 10 years detoxing and trying to then came the C Word, and so why would I take it after what I'd been through? Why would I take it? And so I was no longer, work at the kindergarten school in jobs that I love and have put my heart and soul into and absolutely love. And I wasn't allowed on site and never had a sickie. I never took

MIC3:

off. I don't take

MIC2:

You still don't

MIC3:

don't had sick. I actually haven't had a

MIC2:

sick day in 10 years and that, I swear to God, I haven't had a sick day in 10 years. I've used sick leave for my kids when they've been sick to stay here and look after them, but I've never had a sick day in 10 years. But I was so dangerous I wasn't allowed on site'cause I was so dangerous.

MIC3:

So the healthiest

MIC2:

person in the school, but you were a danger. Was never a two way thing. And

MIC3:

I'm not just saying in my

MIC2:

workplace, as I'm saying in my family,

MIC3:

yeah, absolutely.

MIC2:

holidays, friendship groups, it wasn't a two-way mutual respect. I think it all stems from fear. That's what I was gonna say, one thing, but one thing they don't understand is as fearful of the disease that they were, we were as fearful, if not more of the experimental jab, and our fear was never taken into account. Exactly. I know people say, oh, I mean now

MIC3:

say,

MIC2:

so scared I

MIC3:

didn't, Or you

MIC2:

were so brave to, I wasn't brave. You were brave to go and get that thing jabbed in your arm because I was chicken. I couldn't do it. And maybe, and you do look as though you're being selfish. Like how can you have to do it to keep everyone safe? And there were so many times where I thought, oh my goodness, I'm

MIC3:

am I doing the right thing?

MIC2:

was too scared. I've had a bad reaction and I was too scared. I just got myself back on

MIC3:

track. Yeah,

MIC2:

years and years and years

MIC3:

of course, being,

MIC2:

having this toxic. Thing in my body

MIC3:

I'm a very, very, very

MIC2:

different person now. And I've been through a lot of hard things in my life. Which we'll talk about at another time, but that was actually the hardest thing

MIC3:

I've ever been through.

MIC2:

Because I've never been treated so badly. How lucky am I, I've never been in a minority group

MIC3:

Or discriminated,

MIC2:

you know,, i just have always seemed to be a pretty average. I'm not a amazing sport person, but I can play a bit of sport. You know, I'm not a genius, but I'm not an idiot. I think I've just cruised through life, very average and mediocre. And all of a sudden I was in what I thought, it's not actually true, but what I thought was this real minority group and nobody wanted a bar of me and I was like a piece of dirt. And I've never experienced so that was really hard. But where the doors that has opened up is incredible. I've had to rebuild myself. I've had to self-reflect. I've had to work out, oh, who are actually my friends and who aren't. What do I want with my life? What are my beliefs? What are my morals? What can I learn from this? So yeah, I've been on a whole new journey for five years, which has involved having my own business now and really delving into the wellness world and health and fitness and organics

MIC3:

I guess we are trying to introduce ourselves, we can't go into it all tonight but how did we get here? How did we start a podcast? We've had many journeys in our lives and we've had things happen the last couple of years I've moved back down here, the girls,

MIC2:

Tina.

MIC3:

and Lauren, both here at sa. We caught up often, me, Tina, Hilde, Lauren. We had girls weekends and trying to, we'd always try and reconnect and so

MIC2:

a really exciting girls weekend coming up. Yes. So

MIC3:

and I were up north and the girls were down here. i've moved back down here. Lots has happened with all four of us. The three of us are here. Hilds has had. Journeys too. And we fucking love. We are getting this girl

MIC2:

very

MIC3:

excited. Our podcast excited. We are so excited. Yes, she doesn't know yet, but she's one of our star

MIC2:

Absolutely.

MIC3:

regulars

MIC2:

get her on as a guest.

MIC3:

And she's gonna be regular. She just doesn't know it

MIC2:

But anyway,

MIC3:

we love this girl. You need to, she's like fitness, health. She's amazing. Her journey's been

MIC2:

epic as well. On our next girls we can, we might secretly

MIC3:

everything. We won't. We'll totally let it know. But anyway,

MIC2:

I might,

MIC3:

sorry. Trying to wrap it up. We are. Trying to share a story and if people resonate with us that's our purpose. We and you know what? Some people might go, I agree. Or that she don't wanna, we don't care

MIC2:

Dili Gaff, who?

MIC3:

what's that? Who

MIC2:

Do I look like I give a fuck oh, But No, but

MIC3:

you know what, if some people resonate and they wanna listen to us, and you know what, we can help people in any way, little way.

MIC2:

It's actually more about helping

MIC3:

Us. Yeah. It's actually more therapeutic for us. So, and

MIC2:

we're all so different. Even just that revisiting some of that and that's such a small little

MIC3:

Yeah. Piece

MIC2:

of our life, isn't it?

MIC3:

absolutely. Um, it's

MIC2:

like, wow, we actually are so different. But then we are also so similar. Yeah.

MIC3:

So I feel like

MIC2:

particularly women, but whoever wants to listen. They might get little bits of each of us. Yeah. That kind of resonates with them. It

MIC3:

What have we got

MIC2:

coming up? What are some topics? Let's give some people some insight as to what's

MIC3:

I I do think

MIC2:

we need to put it out there. So then they either keep tuning in or go, oh, no, thank you. You're crazy. Women. Okay, what we can talk about homeschooling maybe. Yes. Homeschool versus mainstream. Versus mainstream. We're gonna talk about. Okay. I don't know. You are always told, never talk about politics or

MIC3:

religion. Oh, we have to talk about we,

MIC2:

and religion, all

MIC3:

know

MIC2:

things that you're told not to talk about at maybe a family dinner

MIC3:

fucking talking about it all.

MIC2:

There's a reason I'm not invited to those family dinners anymore.

MIC3:

Sorry But you know what?

MIC2:

This is our family dinner. We should have called the podcast The Family Dinner.

MIC3:

Let's wrap this up. People need to listen to this shit on the way to work in the car

MIC2:

That's another topic. Going to work and trading time for money, and it's the worst exchange on the planet. Okay, ready? And this was TLC, Tina,

MIC3:

Lauren, Cassie. Woo. The Life Chat.

People on this episode

Contributor

Cassie

Host
Contributor

Lauren

Host
Head Shot

Tina

Host

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