Was it harder than you imagined?
Veronica: "It was actually great fun, I'm not sure whether the TV programme really does it justice. We'd do it again tomorrow. We didn't fall out too much!" Neil, how do you think you came across on the programme?
Neil: "Well, people came up to me in the street and said how sorry they were. We had a few sleepless nights when it first came out but we're settled into it now." What possessed you to do it?
Veronica: "We've always thought of ourselves as a bit of a Tom and Barbara. We kept pigs for a while. But when you get an opportunity like that, you can't turn it down. It was the experience of a lifetime." | "Normally we're all caught up in our nine to five jobs. We were cash poor but time rich. We had the freedom to choose what we wanted to do. " | | Neil Aldridge |
Neil, you're good with your hands, aren't you?
Neil: "Well, I'm in landscape construction for my job. We've been keen on livestock for years as well." Do you kill the livestock?
Neil: "No, we have to take them to a registered abattoir. But that's the whole thing with our meat ethos, we have to make sure that all the meat we eat has had a happy life. If I go out and I'm not sure of the origin of the meat, I'll go for the vegetarian option. I can't abide animal cruelty." The boys have had to change their lifestyle too. But you had brought them up to know that meat doesn't just come from a plastic carton.
Veronica: "Yes, but on the other hand they're teenagers and they will go out for fast food. This year they've learnt a lot more about a healthy diet and how food is produced." You had to give up your jobs, too.
Veronica: "Yes, I had to resign from my job, which I loved. I was promoting health walks... I guess the biggest change for us was the lifestyle, going from having a comfortable salary to not being able to go out, go to the cinema etcetera." Neil: "It was quite refreshing, though, I wasn't under any pressure to put a new car on the drive, I'm just happy to be where I am." Veronica: "It was quite liberating. If we had friends over they didn't expect shop-bought dips and stuff, it was whatever was growing at the time." Neil: "One of my fondest memories was that we'd been given a wind-up radio. We were sitting outside pricking out lettuce, listening to the Archers while everyone else was at work!" Would you take part in another reality TV show?
Neil: "No, this was something we really believed in. We didn't do it to get on TV, it was an opportunity. Someone paid our mortgage for a year and we did it. We also did a lot of volunteer work which was hugely rewarding. It's the time, normally we're all caught up in our nine to five jobs. We were cash poor but time rich. We had the freedom to choose what we wanted to do. Three or four times we went down to try to catch crayfish in the Thames at six in the morning. We were spectacularly unsuccessful, but we had the freedom." Veronica: "Don't ask me to go on Big Brother! Somebody came up to me and asked if I was going to be the next Jade Goody. That horrified me! I couldn't do it." | 
