S2E9: Secret Santa

It's the finale for season 2 - and this time we are doing Secret Santa in an extremely Incongruent fashion. And by that, we mean we get everything wrong... it's chaos as we conclude 2020 - but that does mean that 2021 will be a better year, it has a low bar to leap over!

Hosted by Arjun Radeesh and Stephen King (and Santa!)

With:

• Angelica Banares
• Hashim Riyan @hashim_riyan
• Lydia Vourlidi: @lydia_vrl
• Arjun Radeesh: @arjunrads_20
• Mabel Roy: mabellle__
• Imnah Varghese @potted_ivy
• Samira Banat

Transcript

Arjun: [00:00:00] I was sitting and laughing like, you guys will listen it, uh, when we go on, uh, with our, uh, with people, te revealing what, uh, what is your Sacred Santa gift and to whom is it? So I don't wanna talk so much. And let's move on to Angelica. 

Stephen King: Why? You have to show the, you have to show the gifts. Arjun. Oh, I gotta show You have to send, you have to put the gifts into the chat and say who it goes to.

Let's start with you. Let's start with you. Okay. Arjun, I'm gonna give you your gift first. 

Arjun: Okay? 

Stephen King: All right. I'm gonna, it is gonna be in the chat. All right. Here we go. Can you see? Yes, I'll read it up. I'll read it out here. I'll give it in the best voice of this person. Hello, Arion. It's your secret center here.

Pretty sure it's predictable though. But anyway, thanks for being such an amazing friend to [00:01:00] me for the past two years. It's nice having someone like you around. You are weirdly silly half the time and it's a huge mood lifter. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. Our entire class does without the specimen called Arjun journalism class wouldn't be the same.

You're practically the life of it. And if you didn't know, well, now you do deal with the SaaS. I'm your friend after all, and you know how I talked to you. T he, he, I know your love for aviation. Therefore, I got you what you wanted in your wish, so I barely needed to check. Since as soon as I saw that I'd gotten you, I was already aware of what to buy.

Well then that should conclude the little letter I hope. I hope you're always in good health. Stay fabulous and stay you. That's what's most important. Thanks for everything so far. Aw, isn't that sweet? Are you, are you in tears yet, Arjun? I'm in so much tears. Aw, and here's your first gift [00:02:00] he's got. 

Arjun: Yes. 

Stephen King: Yes.

And. 

Arjun: Oh, Emirates Merchant merchandise. Oh, cameras. Oh, the what? The, uh, what is that thing called? The push out, uh, wallet. 

Stephen King: The RFI, it's an RFID. Uh, protecting wallet? Yes. Ooh, interesting. Secure wallet. You have an Emirates Airline. Uh, face mask merchandise. And she's also given you lenses to make your phone into a cooler camera, telephoto and wide angle lenses.

And, and I'm not sure whether it's a model airplane or 'cause of the budget. She might have given you the full airplane to learn how to ride. She's given you a proper seven. Is it? Is it three 80 or seven? Three seven. 

Arjun: No, excuse me, Steve. Seven three. Seven is a small thing. This is a 7, 7, 7. 

Stephen King: This is a triple seven.

Okay. I don't know. So she's got you in it. So how do you feel, how, how do you feel with that, that gift [00:03:00] and that letter? 

Arjun: Whoever gave me this one, I would be thoroughly happy with them because you knew what I wanted. Like, uh, something, uh, like I was expecting even more, but no worries. Uh, like, uh, who is my secret Santa?

Then I need to know, I feel like its done. What? 

Stephen King: Yeah, she's not here. She, yeah, she's not here. She is 

Imnah: here. 

Stephen King: Yeah. She didn't, she didn't hear, so she'll get the recording. She'll, she'll hear your reaction. 

Imnah: It's definitely a shmi based on the, 

Stephen King: okay. All right, Arjun, you've had your gift. Let's see who's, who's next?

Who have you got next? 

Arjun: So, oh, hello there. A special package for Mabel. Uh, Angelica. Could you please read it? I can't read it. 

Angelica: Um, so a pampering gift set with a facial cleanser and cute pillows because you deserve long hours of rest and presence that feel like a warm, deserving hug.[00:04:00] 

Arjun: Moving on to the next one. The next one? Yes. 

Angelica: Okay. Some sturdy lace of boots for a long, successful journey, because I know that you'll go far in life, plus some fairy lights and a verse and back. Okay. And these are some books that she's been wanting, so if you ever wanna pause and go back in someone else's time.

With a sprinkle of, um, debatable knowledge and how to live life. Thanks to Mark man Manchin, who wrote The Subtle Art of Not Giving Up. 

Arjun: Oh, interesting. Interesting. Mabel, what do you think? 

Mabel: This is so sweet. I didn't even know that we had to do something like this. Oh my gosh. I feel so bad for my secret Santa.

I absolutely apologize. This is so sweet. Oh my gosh. 

Stephen King: Okay. That's good reaction. Mabel, do you wanna have any other, do you want to guess who it was? 

Mabel: Do I need to guess? 

Stephen King: No, because Jun gave it away. [00:05:00] Pretend to guess. 

Mabel: Ooh, I think this is Angelica. I mean, I could have never guessed 

Arjun: moving on to like what Samira gave, and this is for, uh, Angelica, 

Stephen King: the whole secret sentence.

Samira: Let the people guess. Come 

on. Supposed 

Samira: to 

Stephen King: tell. 

That's not how it works. 

Arjun: There was, there was this thing where everyone supposed, no. Now 

he's showing us 

Arjun: through his email. 

Arjun, stop sharing.

Stephen King: There was, there was a what? There was this whole discussion about not sharing the, the gifts with me, because I would like let everybody know 

Arjun: No, no, it's not that This particular, uh, one, which is for Angelica, is sent via email, so obviously the person's name could be seen. 

Stephen King: Show it, but just, just don't show the person's name.

Arjun: The person's [00:06:00] name could be seen because it's sent by an email 

Stephen King: screen. Capture it, slip it, it download the file. 

Arjun: Okay, fine. Wait, I'll, I'll join from my phone and I'll show you guys better. Or, or, or, or else. Should I just read it out? 

Stephen King: No. Show us the picture. It's the whole point of getting a gift is not, is to see it.

Arjun: This person is really generous enough to show what's the price of the product. Also, it's 

Stephen King: basically, oh, it's lovely. 

Hashim: That is the best picture I've ever seen of a good,

Lydia: when you. Basically making a gift. You're not supposed to send the price, but Okay. Nevermind. I'm not 

Arjun: sending the price. Come on. This is the.

Stephen King: You said her name. You said her name. 

Okay. [00:07:00] 

Stephen King: Alright. This is it. This is Secret Center, right? Basically whatever gift you got for anyone, just, just, just, just like either send it to me or announce it publicly because there's not many, so it's obvious. 10 times difficult. I could have just read it out. That's not the point of reading it out.

Arjun, you're supposed to see it relaxing. Staffing it for her. Okay. Whatcha doing? You're reading out. Come on man. Yeah, that's fine. That's okay. I'm looking at all this stuff. Angelica, you got all this stuff right? How do you feel? 

Angelica: Um, I feel like crying, but when do I not feel like crying, but, um, good reason to cry this time, 

Stephen King: some of them, because I'm gonna, which is your favorite gift outta the list?

A 

Angelica: um, uh, I like the journal, A journal quieting anxiety, but I can't read the rest because of the picture. Um, I like the ornament as [00:08:00] well. Yeah. 

Stephen King: You know. When I was young, the Royal Mail used to send you your, your, your Christmas gifts and they would always be travel hash. You know the equivalent. You are the COVID equivalent.

Let's do quickly, who's next? 

Arjun: Okay. Who is next? So we got Hashim. No, no, no, no, no. We got, we got Lydia. Sorry. We got Lydia.

Okay. Do you wanna decide who is it? Apparently everything in this one is a link. Okay. So put all the links. Put all the links. 

Hashim: I'll, I'll send, I'll send the, yeah, I'll send, 

Arjun: I got it. I got it.

Oh, 

Lydia: I knew it. I was so sure, and this is why I have the sixth sense. 

Arjun: Okay. [00:09:00] The first thing, go on, hash him. 

Hashim: Uh, uh. That's, uh, it's a galaxy bath bomb for those extra luxurious nights where you want to, to pamper yourself. Whoever's gonna receive this. Uh, yeah. And it's, it's sent it with Amber. Uh, I forgot what Amber smells like, but yeah, it's a pretty, uh, it's pretty nifty.

Yeah. Okay. Now we get really technical here. This is a, it's a belly dancing costume, but it's actually, it has the rings on it, so it makes the shimmy. So like, you can hear the shimmy with shakes. It's, it's, it's very high tech. Very high tech stuff. It's very, uh. Yeah, it's very, uh, it's very fun. And, you know, purple looks good with, uh, with the Greek skin tones, you know, olive skin.

Yeah. Purple's a really, it's a good color. Yeah, exactly. See, she's wearing purple. Okay. Yeah. This one I actually, this is outside of her, uh, wishlist. [00:10:00] Uh, this is a scratch half map 'cause I know how, how much Lidia likes to travel. So this is her to scratch off all the destinations she wants because she like her ancestor.

Alexander the mediocre. She wants to conquer the world too. Uh, yeah. She wants to go everywhere. So this is for her to, to scratch off everywhere she goes. 

Stephen King: Yeah, 

Hashim: it's nice. Yeah. 

Stephen King: Okay. And so, Lydia, would you like to give any, 

give 

Stephen King: any 

reaction? Um, thank you for the, how do you call it? The belly dancing thing?

Stephen King: Mm-hmm. 

How do you call this, that you put on your waist? I'm not sure. Yeah, someone said that I cannot, so I'm just like, okay. Si. Challenge on. So yeah, I thank you so much, especially for the year. I really, really, really, really, really like it. 

Arjun: So thank, so the next one is basically a package for [00:11:00] hashem. Ah, 

Stephen King: okay.

What else you doing that? Let's have a little discussion. Is it okay to, uh, buy yourself a gift for Christmas? Or do you have to only get gifts from other people? The new trend is being able to get a self gift for Christmas. Yes or no? 

Hashim: Yes. 

Stephen King: And what would you buy yourself as you 

Hashim: Ooh, what would I buy myself?

I mean, if I still had my hair, I'd buy the Afro comb because that would really help me be, uh, a little bit more presentable. But now I really wanna buy some, like a big jug of beer oil, just to get this What? A beer oil. Beer oil hash. Just to get going. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I swear to God, June, if you're the one who got me to, 

Arjun: oh, you're not beard oil.

I would've bought you something else. 

Hashim: No, no. 

Arjun: Mr. Or something. 

Stephen King: Can you join in at all? Yeah. 

Imnah: I heard my name. 

Stephen King: Yay. Talk to them. We miss [00:12:00] you. Give us some logic. Give us some sense. Give us some quality. Wait, what? Put your boys back in their boxes. Yeah. Tell us, should you buy yourself a gift or not? 

Would I buy myself a gift?

Imnah: Yeah, I think I would. I think I do it all the time, but I don't like think of it as like, oh, I'm about to buy myself a gift right now. I think I'm just like, okay, I've had a hard day. Maybe like reward myself with some food or maybe just like something nice once in a while. I think it's good, you know, it's like a little, like a self reward system.

Just like appreciates the work that you've done. I don't think it's like a vain thing. I mean like it can be, but yeah, I think it would be nice to just like, you know, get a small treat sometimes. 

Stephen King: Okay. Uh, Mabel, what do you think?

Mabel: I would totally get myself a guess. I feel like everyone should. Like self care, self love, we [00:13:00] should like do that. And like, what better time than Christmas time to get yourself a lovely gift. 

Arjun: Okay, so I'm gonna share my screen. I got Hashem's, uh, things here. Uh, so a second. Here we go. The first one, France, Kafka, the complete series.

It's a book. Second one is, okay. Very good. Action. Someone has seriously known your needs.

That's your second one. Moving on. What is this? I don't know. What is this? Okay. Suspenders, suspenders. Number four, Beatles. The ca? 

Hashim: No, I love the ca man. It's a vinyl record. Okay, 

Arjun: fine. Sorry, my bad. [00:14:00] Uh, and the last one for you is a D 2,500 camera kit from Canon. So from Nickon. My bad.

Stephen King: What do you think about that Hashem? What's your, what's your, what's your thoughts on those giving? I'm, 

Hashim: I'm, I'm actually blown, blown away. Wow. I think, I think I know who got that. Uh, I think it's Samira. No, no. Oh, it's not leading. Uh, 

Arjun: this, this particular person has told me to tell you this. To the most opinionated man in the room.

A large section of wonderful gifts to reveal to, to, to reveal in during the season. Keep going. Crazy. 

Hashim: Mad dude. It sounds like him though. But that literally could be anybody. That could be. My mailman said that he knows me. Sorry, it 

Imnah: ain't me. Or your mailman. 

Hashim: What be my mailman? Is it me? Did I give [00:15:00] myself everything 

Stephen King: that.

You gave yourself the gift and, and you didn't know.

I think the way today's gone, I wouldn't be surprised. Aja, would you like to reveal it or is it gonna keep secret? Uh, 

Arjun: should I reveal who gave it to him? 

Stephen King: Yes, 

Hashim: please. Ah MAs. Yep. A beautiful gift. How dare you, Mabel to make me get this emotional that's, that's, uh, it's a good selection of gifts and I like the message.

That's a very honest message. You, I like that you put the beer stuff, the beard stuff in the beginning, you know, you know what I need, uh. Thanks, Mabel. 

Mabel: I was so confused with the beer stuff, but 

Hashim: Yeah. Yeah, I think I made it pretty easy with my gifts. Yeah. I got like a 20 items 

Mabel: in 

Arjun: my, yeah, no, 140 items. Just one 

Hashim: 40.

Yeah. 

Arjun: So I gotta now check with I I, I haven't received anything, [00:16:00] anything from you. 

I didn't know how to send it. I literally have no idea how this works. I just have it like in my wishlist on Elster. Okay. I mean, 

Arjun: so do one thing. Uh, who are you giving, willing to give it? Just say what is it? 

Imnah: I feel like I should just share my screen and show you guys the wishlist.

Got it. Just because like, it's like super long, um, because I got like variations of things. Just 'cause I was like, oh, there's no money budget. Let me get one of literally everything. 

Stephen King: Who's it for? 

Imnah: Should I tell you or should I show you first? 

Stephen King: Okay. Show, show, 

Imnah: show first. 

Stephen King: Okay. You're a presenter. You can share the screen.

Imnah: I think you guys are, you either guess perfectly or guess really wrong. So this is like 

Stephen King: reverse. This is reverse Elf Santa, right? This is like we get the gifts and we know who's giving it. Now we have to guess who is the recipient. 

Arjun: You should be actually doing that. [00:17:00] 

Imnah: So first we have a camera. We have a nice reacher radio.

Um, we've got a gramophone. I had to search what this was called because yeah, I completely forgot. We've got some nice boots in different shades. A spiked glass water bottle to hit somebody with sometimes, um, and some nice cat t-shirts. This one says, I just want to read books and pet cats. This one says Chunky boy.

And then we have mother of cats. And then, you know, some cute costumes for cats. 'cause why not? Um, a couple of board games or card games, really. Cards against humanity, exploding kittens. And then this is some like, nice reusable stuff in like a package. Um, we've got some art supplies over here. Very comprehensive one.

Um, a beautiful antique looking journal. Um, another journal. Some nice like tapestries that hang on the wall. Funky socks. Okay. This is my favorite pair. [00:18:00] 2020 Funny Socks. Your Rainbow Socks. Party hats and party glasses. There we go. That's the wishlist. 

Arjun: Got it. So we gotta guess who is the person it is. 

Imnah: Oh, you want me to tell you who the person is?

No, 

Stephen King: no, no. It's, no, no. We're 

Arjun: you're guessing it. 

Imnah: Who wouldn't? Dan? No. Samira. Very. Yep. It's Samira, Sam, 

Samira: me,

I, I love everything. I had a feeling once I saw the doc Mars, I'm like, oh, that looks like something I get. Once you saw the what? The dark mar boots. And then when I saw the cats, I was like, okay, it has to be me. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I feel very awkward receiving [00:19:00] gifts, but I love it. 

Stephen King: Oh, now we have a very strange situation.

Imnah: You also got Sam, didn't you, Steve? 

Stephen King: I did also somehow Samira, you managed back the Secret Santa and you are the recipient of tickets. Well, you're 

Imnah: the one that gave me Sam's name. You told me to wait, give 

Stephen King: Sam. So you signed in twice. You signed in twice. 

Samira: Oops. 

Hashim: No, this is a racket. What the hell should I, 

Samira: should I pretend the signing in twice was intentional?

So you guys all think I'm extremely smart. 

Stephen King: And no, I think, I think it's appropriate because my, my gift for you, Samira is, uh, is equally fun. See, 'cause I know how tricky you are.

So I, I, I, I, I decided to go all out and, uh, you have the book of the [00:20:00] sit and you're on lightsaber. But it, it, it is cool light saber, uh, for a very special character. And so like, you can break it in half. So it's like you can use it two handed, like, uh, or you can put it together and fight like Darth Mo.

It's, it's a rocking. It's, and, and you can turn it, like have it two handed. It's a multi multipurpose, evil lifesaver. And, and, and 

Samira: thing is, 

Stephen King: yes, 

Samira: I have. I've never. Watched Star Wars. However. However, I've always wanted a light saber because I thought it would make me far cooler than I already am, and so I appreciate it and it's something I've always wanted since I was a kid, so.

Thank you. My dreams came true in the coolest way possible. [00:21:00] 

Stephen King: And you managed and you've proven that you're sit by hacking nails. 

Samira: Exactly. Everyone 

Stephen King: else is only getting one. Sam, you're 

Samira: welcome everybody. 

Stephen King: There can't be that many PE. Is anybody left?

Hashim: No, I don't think there is. There is. 

Arjun: Yeah, there is. 

Hashim: There is, 

Arjun: yes. Yes, yes. It's basically from me. Oh, no. Yeah, it's from me and I think you can guess To whom is it? Because apparently everyone is done. This is Okay, so I'm, I'm go, I'm, I've taken the tech road. Okay. All tech stuff. I, uh, I have put on this particular person's list, so a beat studio three wireless headphones, uh, DGI, uh, sort of drone quad [00:22:00] copter.

Stephen King: Oh, that's okay. Cool. 

Arjun: Uh, uh, PS four watchdogs two cd. Okay. Um, then again, a Spider-Man, CD then a studio. Lighting kits like a big, uh, this one for like getting a perfect studio. Something for him to read. Dr. Seuss beginner book collection. 

Stephen King: Oh, that's good 

Arjun: then. And Insta 360. Okay. Like, this thing can take, uh, videos like as if, uh, it can take in 360 degree.

Then a Canon five D Mark. Four. Okay, and finally a road microphone for podcasting. Guess who will it be?

Hashim: It's, it's, it's the older, again, it's the older version of Arjun, which is Steve. [00:23:00] I think 

Stephen King: so. 'cause we talked about a lot of stuff. He, he's always flexing all of his equipment and we're, we always have this sort of like banter online. He's always asking which equipment this and which equipment that. So the headphones, he's got these headphones and I have the same headphones.

Similar headphones, but his are better. So he's, he's just, he's just pointing out the fact that he's got better kit than me and he's helping and he's, he's, he's just helping me move up in the world. So I appreciate it. To always keep me, keep me at the standard, which is, is suitable to work with Arjun. I'm, I, I, I get it.

I, no worries. Thank you so much. You sir. I will upgrade my equipment, so I'm just. I can still stay in your brain. Three 

Arjun: cameras. I bought you three cameras. 

Stephen King: That is very good. I appreciate it. That's, that's lovely. Thank you. Now, did we miss anybody? Did we, did anyone have Dan? 

Arjun: Uh, yes. Lydia Goan. 

Stephen King: Who did you send it to?

Arjun: You? 

Stephen King: Me. So what, what did you, [00:24:00] in what way, which format did you send it to Me? The 

Lydia: website. 

Stephen King: Lidia.

Sorry, I almost bad. See, I am, I am the older version of,

yes. All right, here we go. So, uh, she's not here so you can give them to anyone else if you like. Worries. 

Lydia: So I, I still see she likes writing poems and she has her own page on Instagram and she has named it as Destiny, right? So I thought it would be nice to give her a journal where she can write her poems.

And she really likes this, uh, all the, how do you call them? Like the feather Old fashioned, uh, 

Stephen King: Quill Quill. Um, 

Lydia: so yeah, I thought it would be nice to have a journal where you can write your thoughts and poems down. Aw, okay, next one. Next. See [00:25:00] her favorite. See you likes K-Pop and I think it matches with her eating Susy right now.

So, uh, her favorite keyboard band is Stray Kids, and I got her a hoodie as well as Mask because, uh, which is the next gift, because it's very important to have a, a mask. Right now, it's her favorite way done way done. You, you express your opinion in the her like a, she also likes B-T-S-B-D-S is another K-pop band.

I got her like the album of the new, the, the new album along with the journal and autographs. Um, I'm not really knowledgeable on that, so. Okay. And also I got her, um, a set I wouldn't. Set with arts because she likes drawing. And I saw that she really likes the set with the wood and I think it's very nice and unique.

And she can also have this board [00:26:00] and put her paintings on there. And I also got her, uh, Bluetooth pods, gold because why not? We, in Dubai, everything is in gold, so it matches with the whole vibe of the city. And I'm also. You know, everything needs to be gold. I'm joking. And I also made her a card, a Christmas card.

Um, if you open it, yes I do. It says have a jolly holy Christmas down. And so, yeah, I hope you like it then. 

Stephen King: I think she love it. I think it's beautiful. It's pretty nice. 

Lydia: I can, I can send it to her. 

Stephen King: I'll send it to her now. That's so cool. That's an awesome way to finish the year. All right, everybody. Uh. I thank, I wanna say thank you to all of you.

It was a lovely thank you for participating in that exercise. There were some lovely [00:27:00] gifts and some lots of learnings to be taken from all of that. It looks as like we've all grown as, as a group, and I really appreciate, and I've, I really enjoyed this term. Uh, thank you. We've produced some really nice content and I hope everybody online has, has enjoyed listening to it and everything that's happened that's been positive this year.

We're so very grateful to everything. Yes. 

Arjun: Yeah, 

Stephen King: So then everybody, a happy Christmas and a happy New Year, happy festive season, Hanukah, and whatever it else that is, that might be you celebrating this, this, this period. And, uh, and, and good night and we'll wrap up anyway. Go. Can we all do, can we do a little?

We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a merry 

Samira: Oh no.

Stephen King: We wish you were.

We wish [00:28:00] you.