I've been Divorced for 9 months now...

So I was lying in bed last night and I

looked at my calendar and I realized that

it's almost been exactly 9 months

since I got divorced, and I thought I

would like to take a moment and sit down

and talk about it because I feel like I

haven't really talked about the whole

experience of getting divorced and

becoming a divorcee since I left Japan

because, well, so much has happened this

year and it's already September— well,

it's nearly September and this year's

almost over. I feel like this whole year

has just kind of whizzed by so quickly. I

think that's because of the virus and the

pandemic. That's all you ever hear about

nowadays when you switch on the TV. It's

just virus, virus, virus, virus, virus.

And you watch the TV and it feels like the

world is coming to an end and everything's

going to be over soon. And then you go

outside and everything's just kind of

normal, and it makes you think, is this

virus actually real? It feels like it's

just some kind of television drama, and

the only difference I'm noticing is people

are wearing face masks. And as someone who

lived in Japan for a long time, I'm

already kind of used to seeing people

walking around wearing face masks. It's

kind of funny now that you think about it.

Japan was way ahead of everyone when it

comes to wearing face masks in public.

People used to laugh at Japan and make fun

of Japanese people for wearing masks in

public, calling them weird and saying it's

strange, and now the whole world is doing

it. I find that a little bit ironic. So

getting back on topic, how do I feel about

being divorced, getting divorced,

becoming a divorcee? How has it changed my

life? To be honest, it hasn't really

changed my life at all. So I got divorced

and that's it really. For some reason,

there seems to be a big stigma, a negative

stigma around getting divorced. And I

think a lot of people stay in marriages

when they're not happy mainly out of fear

because they don't want to be labeled as a

divorcee. And I've never really understood

this. I don't understand how being a

divorcee is really going to affect your

life that much. You just don't tell people

that you got divorced. It's not difficult.

If I met someone and they asked me, so

have you ever been married before? It's

pretty easy to say no. You don't have to

go around announcing to everyone that you

got divorced. You go to the supermarket,

no one's going to know that you were

divorced. It doesn't really affect my

daily life. If it does come up in

conversation, there's not really anything

anyone can do to look up and find out

if you were married or not. The only way

to find out if I was actually married or

not would be to somehow get access to my

ex-wife's family registry, and I guess in

there, there would be some kind of record

that I was married to her. I don't have

any proof. I wouldn't even be able to

prove to you that I was married because I

don't have any papers. I don't have any

physical documentation that, that shows

you, that says that I was married. I think

when it comes to divorce, there's,

there's a lot of shame associated with

getting divorced. It's kind of like you

failed. Your marriage failed because you

did something wrong or you didn't try hard

enough. It's kind of funny because when I

first got married, there were so many

people in the comments warning me about

how it was a bad idea, how I would regret

it, because when you get divorced, you're

going to have all these problems and your

wife's going to take all your money and

you're going to lose everything, and it's

going to be this big legal situation,

this big legal thing where you're going to

need a lawyer and an attorney and you're

gonna have to go to court and all of this

rubbish people were just writing in the

comments about how bad of an idea it was

to get married. Turns out, you know,

getting divorced wasn't really a big deal.

There was nothing to pay. I didn't lose

any money. I didn't have to hand over my

assets. I didn't have to give her half my

stuff. I didn't have to get a lawyer. She

just went to the town hall got a piece of

paper, got me to sign it, and then I sent

it back to her, and then she handed it

back in, and then just like that, we were

divorced. There was no drama, no big

story, no expenses. I guess it was kind of

anticlimactic. So if you're going to ask

me, do I regret getting divorced? Do I

wish I tried harder to save the marriage?

Because I do feel like I could have saved

the marriage if I really wanted to. I

could have apologized, I could have said

I'm going to delete Discord. I'm going to

stop saying stupid things online. I guess

she may have taken me back, but I

just— I didn't feel like it was a good

idea. I felt like getting divorced was the

right choice to make. And now that I look

at my life right now at this moment, to be

honest, I don't really feel like my life

is very different to how it used to be.

I'm still just staying at home most of the

time. Playing games, making videos, going

out shopping. It's just that I'm by myself

for most of the time, and I don't have any

of the problems or the arguments or the

fighting that I had to deal with when I

was married. There was a moment in my life

when I was married when I thought— I felt

like I was trapped, and I thought I was

going to be stuck in the marriage for the

rest of my life. And the idea of growing

old and just being stuck in that tiny

little apartment in Osaka until my

final days and not being able to go back

home to England to enjoy my garden and my

house, that kind of scared me a little bit

and made me feel very sad. You may have

been wondering why I seemed so depressed

during the final moments of my marriage,

and that was because I didn't really think

I was going to get divorced. I thought I

was going to be stuck in the marriage for

videos and livestreams with the bloody

Hong Kong guy, that was just really

annoying and irritating. And I, I was

kind of worried that they would just carry

on doing it forever, and then they'll just

be constantly talking about me and using

my name in video titles. Thankfully,

they've stopped. I think it's been 2

months since the Hong Kong guy last

uploaded something, which just kind of

shows you that It just kind of shows you

that not everyone has what it takes to be

a full-time YouTuber. You really need

dedication and determination to

consistently make videos all the time,

every day, every week, every month, for

years upon years upon years, and not

getting tired with it, not giving up. And

I guess the Hong Kong guy just didn't have

what it takes. I'm just so glad

that all of that's behind me now and I can

move on to better things. I don't mind if

he makes— if he wants to make videos. I

would just prefer it if he stopped making

videos about me and he stopped talking

about me. And he has stopped, and that's

great, and I thank him. And I'm glad that

they've also been able to move on and put

all of this stupid drama behind us.

So if you're wondering if I would ever get

married again, I think the short answer

would be for now, probably not.

I don't think marriage is a good idea. I

think the concept of marriage is very

lovely and romantic. The idea of binding

yourself to someone else because you love

each other and you want to be together

forever, that's great. That's cute and

romantic and lovely and beautiful, but The

whole legal side of it where the man can

get completely screwed over. For example,

I read in the news recently about Ewan—

Ewan, I can't say his name properly. It's

Ewan McGregor, you know, the guy who

played Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels.

I heard he was getting divorced and then

he has to give up half of his wealth

to his wife. He has to pay her $12,000

a month. She got the $5 million mansion.

She gets $100,000 here and $100,000 there.

And I'm just thinking, why does she

deserve to get his earnings? He was the

one who worked hard to become a famous

actor. He was the one who worked hard to

earn all the money, and she just gets half

of it automatically because they were

married. That's just like— that's the

dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Who came

up with that law? What is the point of it?

I feel like it's really unfair towards

men. Luckily you know, I don't really have

anything. I'm not a famous anything. I

don't have loads of money. I don't have

property. So I don't really have much to

lose if I had to give half my stuff to my

ex-wife. But if I was really famous and

rich, I'd be worried. I'd be worried about

losing half my stuff. I think I would only

get married again if I felt safe and

comfortable. I don't want to be worried

about losing half my stuff. I don't want

to be worried about losing my property or

potential property that I might own in the

future. I don't want to worry about losing

half my savings. So I don't think I would

get married again unless there was some

way that I could guarantee that my savings

and my assets and the things I own

wouldn't be at risk if the marriage failed

and we ended up getting divorced and my

next wife isn't as kind as my previous

wife. Yeah, I just think it's kind of dumb

that the government can poke

its nose into your personal relationship

and force you to do stuff that you don't

want to do, or else you'll get sent to

jail. And all this legal mumbo-jumbo gets

involved in your personal relationships,

and I think your personal relationship

should be something private between you

and another person. And if things don't go

well, it should be up to you 2 people to

sort it out and come up with a way to

go your separate ways in a mature and

civilized way without having to get courts

involved. From my own experience, I can

honestly say that when a third party,

also known as the Hong Kong guy, pokes his

nose and gets involved in your personal

affairs and relationships, it's, um, it's

a little bit annoying. And that's all I

had to say about becoming a divorcee and

getting divorced. Has it really changed

anything in my life? Am I really affected

negatively in any way? Um, I think the

answer is easily no. Being a divorcee

hasn't really ruined my life in any way or

changed anything, and deep down inside, I

haven't really felt any difference. I'm

still the same old me. Yeah, that's what I

had to say. And now I'm going to make a

delicious lunch. Hello and welcome back to

a new episode of Cooking with Daniel.

So since it's been a long time since I

last did a Cooking with Daniel episode,

we're going to start off with something

fairly simple and easy to make. And you

need 2 ingredients: you need slices of

bread and you need a tomato. And I'm not

going to tell you what I'm going to make.

We're going to play a little game and you

can guess what I'm going to make as we go

along.

Next, you want to get your paprika and

sprinkle some paprika onto the tomato.

And I also sprinkled some— sprinkled

some black pepper. Oh wow, it's making me

choke. It's dirty. And we're just gonna

place it here. Now I like to place it

right on the edge so it's easy to take out

when it's cooked, because when it's really

hot you don't want to put your hand into

it.

Delicious tomato toasty.

Great. And on your oven you want

to set it to the the

pizza setting,

and we want to choose pizza. Now I know

it's not really a pizza, but it's pretty

much the same thing. And we want to choose

pizza chilled,

pizza fresh. Yeah,

pizza fresh on baking tray sounds what—

sounds like what we need. And it's going

to cook for 25 minutes But I don't think

it's going to take that long.

So we'll just keep an eye on it to make

sure it doesn't burn and should be fine.

It's been 10 minutes and as you can see,

the tomato has gone nice and soft. Juicy

cooked tomato on a crispy bed of

bread.