Transcript of Bitesize Ep 24 Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to another bitesize episode of the British English podcast with your host, Charlie Baxter. Today is a very quick one, but we have a delightful guest and that is English with Lucy. Or should I say Lucy? Hello, Lucy, how are you doing?

Lucy:
Hello. I'm very well. Thank you. How are you?

Charlie:
I'm splendid. Yes, it's it's rather hot over here in Australia. How is it in England?

Lucy:
It's absolutely freezing, but at least it's dry. It's been raining a lot recently. Shock.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah, a shock. But at least you have the duvet over you at night to keep you cosy.

Lucy:
Definitely. And a lot of heating at the moment.

Charlie:
We don't have heating here. It's a bit bizarre, actually for me.

Lucy:
Oh, do you have air conditioning?

Charlie:
Only a really terrible, portable one. Yeah, and it's very loud, so I'll keep that off. So yeah, this video is going to be a quick fire round for Lucy. So should we get straight into it? Are you ready?

Lucy:
Yes.

Charlie:
First question, do you prefer texting or talking?

Lucy:
Talking! Anyone who texts with me will know. Oh no, it's a quick fire and now I'm expanding. Anyone who knows me will know that via WhatsApp, I do a lot of voice notes, Long ones.

Charlie:
You do. Yes, you do voice notes. Yeah, quite long. Yes. All right. Next one is what's the favourite day of the week?

Lucy:
Saturday because I know that I've still got Sunday to look forward to.

Charlie:
Ok, nice. What's your favourite city in the UK?

Lucy:
Oh, that's a hard one. I loved Edinburgh. That was absolutely beautiful. Oh, that is hard. See I like little towns more than cities, but I'm going to go for Edinburgh.

Charlie:
You can. You can change it to a town if you like.

Lucy:
I really like the Cotswolds. So Stow-on-the-Wold was lovely. Cheltenham is quite nice. Yeah. Any Cotswolds towns and villages?

Charlie:
Not bad at all. Cotswolds lovely. What is your nickname your parents used to call you?

Lucy:
Lolly and also Buhs. Because. We don't really know why it just developed over time, Buhs

Charlie:
I'll call you Lolly. What was the last song you listened to? This is a bit random.

Lucy:
Oh, so I don't really listen to much music, but Will is just constant and it is one by Dua Lipa. I don't know which one it is, but it's never ending and I'm constantly asking him to turn it off. Misery, guts, I like silence or podcasts, including yours.

Charlie:
Oh, cheeky. Very nice. Ok. Ok, would you? I like this one. Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world or be able to talk to animals?

Lucy:
Oh, that's a hard one. I mean, I would love to talk to animals. I would. But I think it'd be a bit annoying. I think it would be like walk, walk, snack, treat, walk? I don't think his vocabulary would be that advanced. I probably would say, I think I would say animals, but maybe the dialogue would be quite sad. Maybe I don't know. Maybe I'm looking too deeply into this. Every language.

Charlie:
That's a great point. Yeah, OK. Favourite holiday?

Lucy:
I took Will to Seville for a weekend. That's where I used to live, and it's possibly one of my favourite places on Earth. I think it is actually one of my favourite places. And that was absolutely gorgeous because I got to show him a part of my life that he had never seen before.

Charlie:
So Seville is particularly unique within Spain, would you say?

Lucy:
Yes.

Charlie:
Yeah. How so?

Lucy:
Well, I think Spain is, you know, every town there is different. Every city is different. It's so rich in culture. But Seville, for me, it was unique because when I was living there, I was living with a family from Seville. So I think I got a real insight into their culture. I also learnt Spanish there, so I feel very connected in that way. The food is incredible. The dancing, the music, their celebrations, the Feria. Every year they have a Feria where everyone wears flamenco dresses. I have two. I need to get them dry cleaned actually. Sometimes I just eat my dinner in them.

Charlie:
That's funny. Ok. How long does it take you to get ready? (For your dinner) No, not for your dinner.

Lucy:
For filming or for every day?

Charlie:
Every day to start with.

Lucy:
Every day, I would say half an hour, but filming, that's a whole (n)other story at least an hour, at least an hour. So I listen to podcasts when I do that because otherwise I would go insane.

Charlie:
What about just going out for the night?

Lucy:
Oh, going up for the night? Yeah, probably another hour. If I'm going, if I'm getting glammed up, then I do need a bit of time to put all these curls in my hair.

Charlie:
Yes, of course. Yeah. Ok, so scale of one to 10. How good are you at driving?

Lucy:
Oh, it would be a one. The one is earnt because I actually passed my driving test. Eventually, I think I met you in person just after I had passed my driving test and I still drive the orange Mini. I don't know if I told you this before, but I bought the car my first ever car. I had just passed the driving test it took me- Here's a riddle. I took- I turned up to the driving centre four times, but I only failed twice. What happened?

Charlie:
Your mother was the driving instructor. No, I don't know.

Lucy:
I actually turned up on a day that I hadn't actually booked the test. I had got through to the final stage of the online booking form, but I didn't press confirm and I did like an hour and a half of driving practise paid for with my instructor before I was so nervous, so ready sat there. Everyone else got cold and I never did, and they said they didn't have a Lucy on their books. But I eventually did pass, bought a car and when I drove it out of the the car shop, the car dealership I it's it was in Milton Keynes, which is a city in the UK, which is famous for having so many roundabouts. It's a very new city. I think it was developed in the late eighties to early nineties and it was this very strict plan with lots of straight roads and roundabouts. And I got to the first roundabout, stalled, which meant my car stopped, the engine switched off and I had to put it back into first gear and go forward. But I didn't. I wasn't used to my new gearstick put it into reverse and went straight back into the person behind me, smashed their number plate. The police came and they created like a way for me to go out, and I went straight through a red light, but I just kept on driving. I just wanted to get home at that point. It was horrendous.

Charlie:
Oh, brilliant and you stuck your middle finger up outside the window. So are you giving yourself a one?

Lucy:
A one. I'm a terrible driver. I do try. Maybe three. I do try, I'm very friendly when I drive, I live for the thank you. When I when I let someone through that, thank you from them, it means so much to me. I always give thank you's even when I don't need to. If someone is obliged to let me through, I'm like, thank you. Yeah, I'm very courteous, but I'm just I just think I take a little bit longer to work out what to do. And also, I struggle with my left and rights, so I'm constantly trying to remember who goes first at a roundabout.

Charlie:
Yeah, I remember actually with my driving instructor, he was telling me that he had another student who was on their 40th attempt of a test and they were still going the wrong way round the roundabout.

Lucy:
I can relate slightly. Really, it's not even about learning. It's about a certain awareness of which side of your body is which. Everyone says, you know, just think of your right hand being the hand that you write with. And I look at my hands. I just don't know which one I write with. It's it's a genuine thing. I think when I first met my fiance Will, he thought I was playing it up and making it more of a big making a bigger deal than it actually was. But over time, he's realised, Damn, this is a genuine problem.

Charlie:
All right. Fill in the blank. Taylor Swift is ____?

Lucy:
Inspirational. We watched her Miss Americana documentary the other day, and it was very clear how hard she works.

Charlie:
Nice. Yeah. Respect that. Yeah. Ok. At what age do you want to retire?

Lucy:
Do you know what? I don't know if I will I ever see myself one hundred percent retiring. I'll always need something to keep my brain busy, but I think sixty sounds good. Sixty to sixty five.

Charlie:
I agree with what you said, though like the older generations they obviously assume about, assume that they will get retirement. But I think our generation I don't know if I can speak for everyone, but I feel like we might not even see what retirement really is like. We're getting older and older and there's going to be less money for us.

Lucy:
Also, sixty and sixty five doesn't seem that old anymore. I know so many sixty to sixty five year olds. I mean, my dad, he runs 10Ks in amazing times. He's got the most incredible stream of hobbies. He plays in a band, he plays squash. Oh, you know, he's got such a rich life.

Charlie:
Tom Cruise is two years away from being 60.

Lucy:
Is he? He looks great and I think if you keep yourself healthy and you keep your mind busy and well-oiled

Charlie:
And you sign yourself up for Scientology.

Lucy:
Yes, very important.

Charlie:
Ok. Invisibility or super strength?

Lucy:
Invisibility definitely. Definitely. Yeah, it means I wouldn't have to do my makeup,

Charlie:
But then you wouldn't have many videos.

Lucy:
No, that's true. It might make the editing easier.

Charlie:
And the last one, is it wrong for a vegetarian to eat animal crackers? I don't even know what animal crackers are.

Lucy:
Where did you find these questions? I think that's absolutely fine. I think when it comes to vegetarianism and veganism, I think people should stop being so hard on themselves. I know crackers don't contain any animal products, but honestly, if you make one mistake, it's OK.

Charlie:
But OK, so I just googled what animal crackers are. They are crackers in the shape of little animals like an elephant.

Lucy:
So nothing to do with actually eating meat then. Yeah, that's absolutely fine. Absolutely fine. And they can eat fake meat if they want. And if they accidentally mess up and eat something with a bit of meat in it, it's OK. I know so many vegans that have accidentally consumed an animal product and have then felt so guilty that they're not a vegan anymore. You're still a vegan, it's fine.

Charlie:
Ok. Yeah, yeah. Good point. Give them a break. Yeah, give yourselves a break. All right. That's the end of the quick fire see you soon. Thank you so much, Lucy.

Lucy:
Thank you.

Charlie:
Goodbye.

Lucy:
Thank you for having me.

Charlie:
You're welcome. You're you're welcome.

Lucy:
I think I throw you off.

Charlie:
I'm going to keep that.

Charlie:
Now, before we go, Lucy sent me one of her vocabulary diaries that she has recently poured her blood, sweat and tears into. And after looking through it and trying it out a bit myself, I thought you guys would like to know a bit about it. So this is one of the four options Lucy made it because when she was trying to break beyond that intermediate plateau in her language learning journey with Spanish, she wished that she had a diary to capture all of the vocabulary that she was acquiring. But honestly, it's so much more than just a vocab diary. She's put a monthly habit tracker in here to help you stay accountable. She's got daily idioms with definitions for three whole months in each planner. And unlike most online daily idiom generators out there, these are actually worth learning. Like if I just open to a random page to see if I like it or not? No, that one's not very good, actually. No, probably. I'm joking. I'm joking. So this one is to draw the short straw, to be selected to do an undesirable task. So, for example, you drew the short straw when you got sent abroad, so you've got a clean definition and then an example sentence.

Charlie:
And as I said, you've got three months of them in each planner. Let me just check another one hit the sack. Yeah, great one to hit the sack to go to bed. I'm exhausted. Do you mind if I hit the sack? But it's even more than just daily idioms? She's got synonyms and antonyms pages for you to fill out irregular verb charts and some really nice language booster sections. It's got it all. So if you like to write your vocabulary out on paper, then check out the English plan. This is on Lucy's website, so go to www.englishwithLucy.co.uk And yeah, check out these English plans. Remember to grab the free worksheet from today's episode. If you wanted transcripts, then you'll want to sign up for the Premium podcast, and if you want a whole world of learning resources with me, Charlie Baxter, then check out the Academy over on the British English podcast dot com. All right, that's all, folks. See you next time on the British English podcast.