The Ultimate Gift Guide: Experiences Over Things, Merry X-mas | Ep 23

Paul Fattinger (00:11) Welcome to Guys Like Us. is tonight, the podcast for everybody is the Merry Christmas podcast. Usually it is kind of the place where, you know, some middle-aged men come together and talk about some very substantial problems and some champagne problems. But tonight is the Christmas episode. I'm looking forward to it because I'm having Mark calling in with a crying baby in the background, a hangover in his head and his face. Marc Winter (00:21) Merry Christmas! Paul Fattinger (00:40) And myself also, 8 hours of Christmas, fake Christmas celebrations in my bones, which you can see in the package, is a real actual Christmas tree. I Christmas here with my kids and my parents in my parents' house. Very magical, because we're leaving for a vacation tomorrow. And yeah, we're calling in for the Christmas episode. How's it going, Marc? Marc Winter (00:58) Nice, welcome. It's going well. am recovering from daddy and mommy went out last night in New York, which was a lot of fun. We didn't get to do that properly, in kind of the kind of night where, you know, we went to go see a Rolling Stones tribute band and randomly like a coworker who's a huge Stones fan organized this. guess it was Keith Richards birthday. And so like 82 and Paul Fattinger (01:11) Yes, baby. Nice. Very fucking random but yeah nice yeah. Marc Winter (01:32) Yeah, super random. then in the end, you know, it was the kind of night where, you know, we're buying the, friends buying the drummer drinks because she thinks he's cute. I'm backstage eating, chatting with the band and eating their pizza and we're buying rounds of drinks. was really, it was a lot of New York night. You know, the nice thing is I was still home at 11 30, but I, yeah, but we started at, we started at five, you know, so it's like a perfect thing. Paul Fattinger (01:46) What time did you get home? ⁓ There you go. Perfect. and what are you, what drink are you sharing with me tonight? This afternoon, actually. Cheers, my friend. Me too. Marc Winter (02:00) I think we're doing the same thing, so cheers! By the way, I'm having a wonderful schnapps from ⁓ Käfer, Wildbrand. Paul Fattinger (02:07) This is really bad. I'm having a grapple. But it is, I mean, in all fairness, it's 10.30, 10.15 on a Saturday night. So I'm fine. mean, cheers, man. Merry Christmas to you. Beautiful, though, I mean, I really always, my kids were also so excited about doing Christmas here at my parents' house because it has this magical Austrian touch and... Marc Winter (02:15) Well, you look great, so cheers. Merry Christmas. Mmm. Paul Fattinger (02:32) It was all great with some drama because some kids didn't receive the presents they sent the letter for. So there's a lot of expectation management there, a lot of learnings for life, but we're not going to get into this now. ⁓ Marc Winter (02:38) We should do something about that. No, I just want to point out one thing. I'm disappointed in your background. looks warm and cozy, but those are fake. Those are Christmas lights, not actual. Paul Fattinger (02:54) Those are, yeah, we had the real candles. ⁓ I'm gonna post a picture. But actually, see, this is the proof I'm gonna show you. This is the proof. Marc Winter (03:01) Okay. Wow. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful. Right. Exactly. Paul Fattinger (03:05) Yeah, here we go. But we turned them off because ⁓ actually there was a night where we actually almost burned down the house. Yeah, because we left the advent, you know, thing, the advent-kranz sitting on the kitchen, on the dinner table, which is a massive wooden table, and it kind of started burning. And like, not kind of, like completely. And yes, ever since then we've... Marc Winter (03:13) I knew it! Hmm. Paul Fattinger (03:34) we've gotten a little more cautious. anyways, we thought, Mike, about what would give each other for Christmas. And I'm wondering if I'm also going to leave disappointed and cry like one of my sons did today, or if I'm going to leave happy. I mean, you you know, or maybe, you know, it's about my favorite formula in the world that happiness is reality minus expectations. So I'm going to set my expectations very low. Marc Winter (03:45) Yes. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Paul Fattinger (04:03) So you can't disappoint me really. Marc Winter (04:07) So the exercise here, dear listeners, as far as I remember is that we are going to each bring us, gift each other five gifts, five amazing gifts that are within reason. This isn't like I'm gifting you a country or, and within taste too, where I'm not gifting you ⁓ a boat full of beauties somewhere, something ridiculous, right? This is actually real gifts that I think you would enjoy. Paul Fattinger (04:18) Bye. Yeah. Marc Winter (04:36) Full on. Go. Paul Fattinger (04:36) Okay. I love it. Because also let's just quickly do this thing. We did record another episode about gifting last week and it was so shit. It was two days ago actually. And it was so shit that we said we can't put this on here. I had everything done. I had edited it. I had done the clips. I had done the posts and everything and it was so crap. Marc Winter (04:45) Yes. Paul Fattinger (05:02) And we kind of texted each other and said, listen, mean, dude, this was bad. It's like, no, it was terrible. Marc Winter (05:05) Yeah, this is going to hurt our brand. We have nothing interesting to say. Paul Fattinger (05:08) Yeah, it's like, let's not do this. So, I mean, this might not, I mean, even if you think this episode is going to be bad, I can tell you it's better than the one we had. Marc Winter (05:16) Okay, we should say I don't know what I'm gonna receive underneath the Christmas tree from Santa Fatiga. And you don't know what I'm gonna gift you likewise, right? Okay, all right, I'm gonna go first. So I'll give you one gift and then you give me one. How's that? We trade off. Okay, we can see who does the best one. So the first one I thought I would get you is ⁓ a private tennis lesson with Nadal. Paul Fattinger (05:26) No, I don't know who's gonna start though, who is starting? ⁓ I knew that. Fuck this. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, of course, Marc Winter (05:46) in Mallorca. Paul Fattinger (05:47) Yes! Fuck yeah! Nice! That's pretty good. That's really nice. Nice. I love this. love this. In... On Mallorca, in Manacor, in this thing. Totally, totally dig that. Yeah, totally dig that. Okay, my first one is less splashy. But it is. I think I'd like it myself. You know these things that you can use to... Marc Winter (05:49) That was pretty good. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. You're welcome. Paul Fattinger (06:16) open a bottle of wine and get out a glass and then you are able to keep the rest of the bottle for weeks because we could have a glass of wine for our episode of the finest wine and not have to drink the rest of the bottle or throw the rest of the bottle away. Marc Winter (06:21) excellent gift. Yes. ⁓ Okay, that is super practical and genius. Actually, I love that gift. Wow. Okay. I might have to give that one to my brother. Okay. I approve. Paul Fattinger (06:40) That is my first gift. Yeah, I like that too for myself, actually. I would really like that because I usually I really more than once it happened to me that I opened a bottle for our podcast. I threw away the rest because I didn't want to drink yet. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Marc Winter (06:52) Yeah. No. Okay. Well, okay, gift number two, drum roll. You know, by the way, I'm go from the experiences to things where a lot of these are experiences. I'm gifting you a ride on the F1 track in Las Vegas. Pre-ride? No, no, no, Vegas. Vegas is way more fun. No, no. ⁓ Paul Fattinger (07:04) I'm Sam here. Not Austin. nice with who? Max Verstappen. Okay, I like this. Okay, I'm giving you a what I call Tour the Dirt. Marc Winter (07:19) Dude, if it's the only guy you want it. guy, the, the, the, What do I... What's mine? Yeah, I thought you would. What's that? Paul Fattinger (07:37) You recommended to me this book, Dirt, two years ago. Marc Winter (07:41) yeah? Excellent choice! my god. Paul Fattinger (07:44) And I want to go to all the places that are mentioned in this book and eat in the, you know, get the bread of the boulangerie, go to the vineyards. And it is in Lyon, right? I mean, this book is about a, an American journalist who goes to Lyon to the, you know, basically the heart of the Bourgogne, the, you know, and, and, learns everything about French cuisine. And I would, I've never been to, to the, to Burgundy myself. So I'd love to go with you. Marc Winter (07:56) Mmm. Mmm. ⁓ Yes. Mmm. Paul Fattinger (08:13) and I'd love to see all these places and eat and drink like motherfuckers. That's it, to the dirt. Marc Winter (08:18) Sounds like an amazing day. Well, that pairs well with my third gift for you, which was my only gift of wine, which would be a DRC, Domine Romine Conti 21. Supposed to be an excellent year. ⁓ So we can pair that and close one of our long evenings in Borgogna with one of those. How does that sound? Paul Fattinger (08:35) Nice. Oh, absolutely digging it, digging it. Okay. So my next one is another experience though, and it is a family experience. I would gift you, I would love us, you know, our families to go together for whatever, many days in beautiful winter wonderland, Lake in Austria for a week of skiing in a beautiful hotel. Marc Winter (08:53) Hmm? Okay. ⁓ man. Paul Fattinger (09:14) know, snow outside, kids on sledges, drinking glue vine, know, all this Merry Christmasy, beautiful alpine, lovely vibes. That's what I would love to do. Yeah, that's not cheap though. So I'm not sure. That is very hypothetical, to be honest. Yeah. Marc Winter (09:16) I'm in. What? That accepted. I love that gift. That's an amazing gift. How did you know? Got it, got it. ⁓ gift number four is you are a big, ⁓ so I introduced Paul, I don't know he's a big techno fan, but I know he's a big Deadmau5 fan. so Deadmau5 is doing a private show at, actually it's another Vegas one, at the Sphere in Vegas, which I thought would be kinda epic to go see, exactly. Yeah, you could do Strobe. Paul Fattinger (09:54) ⁓ no way. Is he really? It's funny because yesterday I was sitting with friends here in Graz and we talked about concerts and stuff and I said I would love to go to some shit in the sphere. Dude, amazing. I'd like absolutely digging it. Would love to go. Okay, my next one is a very mundane one. I will give you a voucher and you put in the... Marc Winter (10:16) Cool. Paul Fattinger (10:23) the number, know, the dollar amount for the Guitar World shop that we went to the other day. Yeah, because we went there in order to pick up mics actually for, the ones that you see now in, we didn't get them there, we got them at Best Buy at the end. But we went there and Mark had lots of fun looking at all the guitars while I was checking out the mics. So I thought, I have no idea, you know, what's going on in there. So I just give you a voucher. Marc Winter (10:27) ⁓ okay. I could finally get my dream guitar. I love that. Mmm. I love that. Okay. Wow. This is these are amazing gifts. Why don't we do this for each other all the time? But we're really good. We kind of know each other. I love it. Exactly. We're so my final gift drum roll, please. And I think this one you'll really appreciate and maybe you don't know. I thought this would be an introspective one. So I was gonna give you a stay at the at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur in San Francisco. And that is Paul Fattinger (10:58) Because it's expensive. mean, this is like ⁓ 100k by now, think. You Marc Winter (11:21) You know, the place of deep reflection, that's where you really of unparalleled duty. And while you you spent, let's say their first four gifts and playing tennis, driving F1 cars, drinking insane wine and rallying in to techno in a rave, I figured you need to center yourself and come back down and realize who you are at Esalen. So that's my fifth. Paul Fattinger (11:43) ⁓ that is beautiful. Thank you. I'm taking that. Yeah, I'm taking that. My last one was similar and it is kind of like, it's another tour, but I kind of like it. This is the Tour d'Autriche. So now after we come back from Burgundy, I would start going from Vienna, which you know. Marc Winter (11:48) You're welcome. Hmm? Mmm. Mmm. Paul Fattinger (12:06) I'll take you to Bajao where we go to see some winemakers and have some wines. And we finally go down to the lakes, you know, that you know, and I will see, and we'll all do this in an amazing car going through Alpine passes, you know, seeing all these, the beautiful places and the beautiful cuisines and restaurants and so on. ⁓ And yeah, go through lots of beautiful places that I always tell you about and I would finally like to show you. And just enjoy, man. Marc Winter (12:08) Mmm. Ugh. ⁓ I'm in. Paul Fattinger (12:36) and just have a week of total enjoyment. In the best case, we take our good friend Hansi, who tried to call me actually yesterday. I I was really, felt blessed, but I couldn't take his call. And then we missed each other, but that would be amazing. It's kind of like a trip we did once from Madrid to Barcelona, but we do this through Austria. And that would be kind of my highlight. It's also a present to myself, to be very honest with you guys. Marc Winter (12:41) Yes. Ha ha ha! There. ⁓ That. I would love to see your country through your eyes. think that's an amazing time. ⁓ What a gift. Gosh, these are amazing gifts. think it was so much better. Exactly. Paul Fattinger (13:13) Dude, this was so much better than last episode. Yeah, because it was excellent. Yeah, we gave the agenda a lot of experiences, which kind of says a lot, right? I mean, they also weren't cheap. Marc Winter (13:21) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Paul Fattinger (13:31) To be fair. Marc Winter (13:31) But but but but we know that look I could I think so too. I think so too. Actually, now I'm going to work harder so I can do that give that to you. Paul Fattinger (13:33) But over the next 10 years we could pull it off. I think we should hold each other accountable to actually pull 50 % of them off within the next five years. Marc Winter (13:47) Excellent challenge. That's a great idea. I love that. ⁓ my god. Cheers to that. My friend, Merry Merry Christmas to you and your family. Paul Fattinger (13:51) Let's do this. Yeah. Cheers to that. Merry Christmas, my friend! to you too and to all of our three listeners or maybe four. Marc Winter (14:03) And to all of our three. Big hugs. Paul Fattinger (14:10) We're not going to do any episodes for the next two weeks. We're to come back in the first, second week of January. We're to take some time off, get our creative juices flowing in whatever shapes and forms. Marc Winter (14:13) No. and then we're gonna reboot and come back in full force. So, looking forward to it. Paul Fattinger (14:26) Looking forward to it, Hey, take care. This was a lovely episode.