Bonus Ep 50 - Exploring Routines in English: British Celebrities Through Harry and Charlie's Eyes

Nov 16 / Charlie Baxter

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What's this episode about?

In this lighthearted episode, Harry and Charlie delve into the imagined daily routines of celebrities like Lewis Hamilton and David Attenborough, offering a unique blend of humour and British cultural insights. Through their engaging and humorous discussion, they provide an entertaining way to learn about English language and customs, while playfully speculating about the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

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Transcript of Premium Bonus049 - Transcript

Speaker1:
Hello and welcome to another episode of the British English podcast. In this episode, we're going to be looking at some famous people in the UK and we're going to be imagining what their daily routines are like. And I'm doing it with Harry the the one and only Harry Gyles. How are you doing today?

Speaker2:
I thought you were going to say the nutcase. Harry Gyles. I heard you say the one and only. Not not nutcase. He's not a nutcase. Not anymore.

Speaker1:
No, he's not a nutcase. He's a normal man. Would you say you're a normal man?

Speaker2:
A normal man? No. I don't want to be a normal man. I don't know. Do you think people would describe me as a normal man? Would you describe me? Yeah. My mate Harry, he's a normal man. Would. How would you describe me?

Speaker1:
Nutcase.

Speaker2:
I don't know. I'm not - nutcase. Exactly. There you go. Nutcase.

Speaker1:
No. I would say probably you're closer to nutcase, if it was a continuum, than normal man.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I'd agree. I'd agree with that. I'm happy to be up the nutty end.

Speaker1:
What about me? [That's good.] I don't like the idea of what you're going to say, but..

Speaker2:
I'd say you're kind of bang in the middle. [Okay?] Because you are in many ways you are quite eccentric, but then in other ways you're very normal. So like, it kind of it balances out. You're dead in the middle of the spectrum, to be honest. [Yeah] Which I think that's where you want to be, really.

Speaker1:
Yeah, potentially. It's interesting [because that enables you. Sorry] No, no. I was just thinking how I was fearing the idea of being closer to normal than nutcase.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I know you were. And that's why I didn't. I didn't send you over that way. But I know no one wants to be totally normal because normal is boring. [Yes] But also, being normal means you conform to certain, like, social norms. And, like, I think you're quite professional. And being professional is like something that's considered quite normal. [Yeah] And generally desired by other professionals and stuff. That's definitely a big aspect of being normal. [Yeah] I find it impossible to be normal. I teach business English, but I'm just dying for the moment where I can start talking about anuses and piss.

Speaker1:
It'd be great if you shocked your business English clients. Like today we're going to be talking about piss, anuses.

Speaker2:
I sometimes I push it and I just see - what can I get these guys to talk about? I'm so bored. I'm like, Oh, you're talking about insurance again. Oh, I just. Today I did the biggest shit. [Oh, God] No, not really. I don't.

Speaker1:
At the end of Q1, we're all going to have a big orgy.

Speaker1:
Yeah. Q Q1?

Speaker1:
Well, that's business vocabulary, isn't it?

Speaker2:
Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. See, you should be doing that. Have you done any business English podcasts?

Speaker1:
No, no, I haven't, actually. I've had Lindsay from all ears English and she's quite business. English, that's her focus kind of. I don't think we focussed on business English. My conversation .. yeah, my conversation would dry up pretty quickly. It gets a bit formal as soon as you start talking about stuff like that. But then the business world, like with all these start-ups and modern businesses, entrepreneurs, it's not so formal now, is it? [No Yeah] Simo said in his first interview for a Big Company. Simo is one of my best friends, by the way, guys. He started working for a company that make Candy Crush. They're called King, I think they're called that now. And his interviewer turned up in flip-flops and shorts. [Wow] And and he was really taken back by it. He was like, what is this guy doing running this business? This is crazy. [Yeah] But, you know, the world is becoming less, less formal.

Speaker1:
Yes, it is. Yeah. [The business world] Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Think in Australia it was quite common that as well to be just in flip flops. But also. Yeah. A guy that I met, he was in a tank top and flip flops and he had just come from the office and was like assuming that he's like an underling kind of just doing some admin.

Speaker1:
He was like, No, I own the business. Like I've got 50 employees. It's like, Wow.

Speaker2:
I've got 50 million in the bank, motherfucker. Nice to meet you.

Speaker1:
Earlier you said taken back. I think it is taken aback, isn't it? But it's interesting.

Speaker2:
It is but no one says that.

Speaker1:
Really? I think I do say that. But maybe that's because I know you do. Everyday, normal guy.

Speaker2:
That's because you've looked it up on Cambridge Dictionary. [Yes] And you've gone, I'm going to say aback. I know. Lots of people do say it aback. I'd say more people say taken back. [Okay] That's me. I've just decided most people in the English-speaking parts of the world say, taken back. I've made that decision on behalf of English everywhere. [Yes. Okay. So, guys].

Speaker2:
But there is actually a good way we could test that, isn't there?

Speaker1:
How?

Speaker2:
We could go on youglish and type in taken back. [Oh] And then we could type in taken aback and we could compare.

Speaker1:
Because they say how many times it came up. You do taken back and I'll do taken aback.

Speaker2:
Okay. You're going to be taken back by the result. Ash. Ashley. Charlie.

Speaker1:
Who's Ashley? Are you cheating on me?

Speaker2:
Well, I've got one friend called Ashley, and I barely ever see him, so I don't know why his name came out.

Speaker1:
Yeah, well, you're going to be taken aback. I've got 712. I've got 2120.

Speaker2:
Wow. We've actually. You've impressed me by this tool as in utilising it for this exact thing. That's great. And also [very good] we can even categorise it by American, British or Australian, can't we? With that tab at the top.

Speaker2:
We can. So maybe in America. Let's go America, shall we?

Speaker1:
Yes, let's do it. Um, I would. I'm going to be crude and guess that Brits are more likely to say taken aback.

Speaker2:
Okay. I've just realised a bit of a flaw in my argument here because sometimes we say taken back in different ways. [of course] So we'd have to write a whole phrase. I am taken back. For example. Shall we rephrase it? [Yeah] Because otherwise, like I've got an example here, two decades later, the Taliban have taken back power.

Speaker1:
Yeah the experiment flops. I would say maybe we type in. I was because we don't really say I am, do we? We would talk about the moment that we were surprised. Okay. [Okay. I was taken back] I was taken aback, for me.

Speaker2:
Again this I'm just imagining someone like has just been through a separation. But then they were taken back by their partner. So actually this might not work either. Can we say I was taken back by but then it's too long, isn't it?

Speaker1:
No but that still works.

Speaker1:
I was taken back by my ex. [Let's go with that. I was taken. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no] Because taken back by my ex is literal, isn't it? We're not using the phrase. So I'm saying.

Speaker2:
Charlie, I'm going to have to go through these one by one, aren't I? All 2000 of them?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Let's just take 2000 hours of your time. Or maybe 2000 minutes. Well, let's just say I was taken aback. I've got 281 hits. How many have you got for I was taken back.

Speaker2:
For that, I've got 83. [Okay] Oh, okay. That might. [That might be] Oh, no, that's just America. That's just America, mate. [Oh] Okay. Only 111. [Okay] That's mad. So 83 of the results were in America. The other, what, 18 were definitely done the maths, no, I think that's right, were the rest of the world? [Yeah] So it's all U.S people being taken back.

Speaker1:
That's what my prediction was. Those sloppy Americans taking out unnecessary vowels or sounds. [Vowel, vowel sounds..] Yeah. So maybe that's right [and letters]. Americans are more likely to say taken back based on our incredibly thorough research and Brits are more likely to say taken aback. But still, Harry thinks that everyone says taken back and that's fine. You know, that was eight minutes of instructional content that is not needed, really, isn't it? Because you can say both.

Speaker1:
Pretty much. You're welcome, guys. Keep on listening. More coming. We're here today to talk about daily routines, which we haven't done yet. So let's get into that. I've got a few celebrities here that I'm going to give you and you can choose from. I'm just looking at some that I think you'd enjoy. Very famous Formula One driver, Lewis Hamilton. He's pretty cool, don't you think?

Speaker2:
Yeah, I think he's quite cool.

Speaker1:
Wears very nice watches, races fast cars. [Yeah] Has very attractive women around him.

Speaker2:
Does he?

Speaker1:
That's apparently cool. Well he married [That is cool] Nicole Scherzinger. What's her name from Pussycat Dolls?

Speaker2:
Scherzinger. Scherzinger. [Yeah, that one] Yeah. I think wearing nice watches, driving fast cars and being surrounded by attractive women or woman is generally considered pretty cool, which would put me pretty.

Speaker1:
Can you be surrounded by a woman?

Speaker2:
You could be. I was surrounded by her, but she's not a big girl, so I don't know if she was like wrapping herself around him, then maybe. Or maybe he's surrounded by the Pussycat Dolls. The whole group? [Yeah] In which case, yes, but are they all attractive?

Speaker1:
Yeah I think so. In their own right. Every woman is attractive, Harry.

Speaker2:
Oh, well said.

Speaker1:
Beauty in every. Every human. All right, let's do a daily routine of Lewis Hamilton. So do you reckon he's lying in a bed that is shaped like a car? Like, you know, the toy cars when you're a kid?

Speaker2:
Definitely. If he's not, I'd be very disappointed. If I was Nicole Scherzinger and I went back to his house after third date, maybe. [Okay. Yeah] How many dates do you reckon they had?

Speaker1:
Yeah, probably three. And then, shall we? Maybe.

Speaker2:
Shall we go back to mine? [Yeah] Maybe not even sharing a bed that night. Perhaps he just. Maybe he just gave her the grand tour of the house. [Of the bed-room] Of the bed. This is my bed. Yes, it's a it's a Formula One car. Yes. Guilty as charged. We won't be using that tonight.

Speaker1:
No, definitely not. You're not allowed in that, sponsors only. So he wakes up in a Formula One-shaped mattress. And then is he waking up from an alarm or is he just naturally coming to.

Speaker2:
That's a good question. That's a really good question. I imagine he's got a an absolutely lovely house, a massive window right in front of the in front of the bed. And so he kind of wakes up with the sunrise.

Speaker1:
Oh, okay. Does he wake up, look in the mirror and think, Hello, Me?

Speaker2:
You would, wouldn't you? Because he's pretty cool. He's pretty good-looking. [Yeah] He's not that good-looking. He's just a decent-looking bloke isn't he. [Yeah. Yeah] With a lovely watch on his wrist.

Speaker2:
Does he sleep in his watch though? That's a good question.

Speaker1:
In? Does he sleep with his watch on, would you say?

Speaker2:
With his watch on. I'm wearing. I'm in a watch. Get me out of here! Yeah, you're right. Yeah. No, with his watch on. Yeah. Appreciate the second correction of the day.

Speaker1:
Shall we see which one is used more on Youglish.

Speaker2:
Yeah. He's in a watch. No, you're right. Yeah, I'm in a jacket. Sounds weird as well. Yeah, You wouldn't say that, would you? I'm wearing a jacket.

Speaker1:
I put my jacket on. [Yeah] Are you feeling all right?

Speaker2:
Yeah but you do say in with some things that you wear, don't you? I mean, I'm in the shit.

Speaker1:
I'm in over my head - to be in over your head. Let's just keep the conversation structured, somewhat. What does that mean in over their head? Somebody is in over their head. They are.

Speaker2:
You're overwhelmed with work or something. [Yeah] You're in too deep.

Speaker1:
Yeah. You've got too many watches to sleep with. You're stressed about it.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Uh, which watch do I wear? Yeah, this is. This is awful. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I think he would probably wake up and just sit straight up. [Yeah] So if he's got an alarm, he'd get straight up. He wouldn't be someone to just, like, you know, toss and turn and be like, uh, you know, he wouldn't.

Speaker1:
He wouldn't scroll Instagram for 30 minutes.

Speaker1:
He'd be up straight away. No? Oh, you're thinking he wants to have a little look at how many followers he's got or something.

Speaker2:
Maybe. Yeah. He might sit up and then I don't think he'd check his followers.

Speaker1:
How many does Nicole have and how many do I have? For God's sake! She's still got more.

Speaker2:
But most of them are because of me. Let's. Come on.

Speaker1:
Pussycat Dolls that died a long time ago. Come on. I've kept her going. Yes, she's been on X Factor billions of times. But, you know, it's mainly me and the fast cars and my bed.

Speaker2:
Are they in a serious relationship?

Speaker1:
I think they got married, but they may have broken up. Can't remember.

Speaker2:
So she hasn't taken his name. But that's quite common these days, isn't it, for the the woman not to actually take the name. [Yes] Like Stacey.

Speaker1:
Well, Stacey wants to do it once we have a child. If we are blessed with such a gift or a challenge. That way she feels like it's less patriarchal, patriarchal and patriarchal and more holistic or family-oriented. Because my sisters have lost our family name and her brothers are going to both keep their family name. I was like, maybe keep Baxter instead of hers for when we have a child.

Speaker2:
Good idea, get rid of Benson.

Speaker1:
I'm leaning towards not caring at all now because I don't really like the idea of her reminding me like..like my mum. Like Mrs. Baxter. That's my mum. I don't want her to be Mrs. Baxter. That's weird.

Speaker2:
What about Mrs. Benson? Baxter?

Speaker1:
That's a bit much.

Speaker2:
Baxter Benson?

Speaker1:
I think they're too similar to do double-barrelled. I think double-barrelled is only. Only really necessary if they're very different and one of them sounds a bit weird on its own. Like Holly, my sister, she was going to be Holly Horne and the ... and and the Horne is H-O-R-N-E, so people would be like Holly horny. So she's done Holly Baxter Horne. And that kind of flows a bit better.

Speaker2:
That works. Or horny Baxter?

Speaker1:
Yeah. I mean, that would have been a better choice, wouldn't it?

Speaker2:
Sorry. We keep digressing. So he hasn't even got up yet. He's scrolling through his Instagram.

Speaker1:
Oh, she is. I just checked. She is a former lover of his.

Speaker2:
Oh, okay. Just a lover. Okay. So, yeah, he gets up and he.. he sends whatever lovely lady he has in bed with him that day on her way. [Oh, right] I imagine. Or do you think he makes her breakfast?

Speaker1:
Hmm. I think I don't think he's got time. I think he needs to get down to the track and do some, maybe some G-force training in the gym.

Speaker2:
Can't he just go to, like, Disneyland or Alton Towers?

Speaker1:
Yeah, he gets the fast-track ticket straight away. They're like, Oh, Louis is here. Give him the fast track entry to the the best roller coaster we've got.

Speaker2:
What is it? It was the G-force. There was that awful ride, wasn't there. Where you're in, just like a kind of a round circle. Oh, okay. Round circle. As opposed to a square circle. And you just spun around loads. That's a horrible G-force ride.

Speaker1:
Yeah that sounds like the kind of ride that astronauts have to take. You know, in those films, when they're training for G-force, they're in that kind of right circular.

Speaker2:
You're in a big kind of cylinder.

Speaker1:
Yeah, in a little cabin going around really, really quickly. Do you reckon.. I know it's digressing, but do you think you could handle G-force well?

Speaker2:
No. No, thank you. Okay. No, I hate that. I think I went on one of those G-force rollercoasters or rides, and I hated every second of it.

Speaker1:
Were you taken aback by how horrible it was?

Speaker2:
I was taken aback by....

Speaker1:
Ahh I thought you would say back, just to be spiteful. You've done it. You didn't like it, Lewis bloody loves it, obviously. So he's looking forward to that G-force feeling. So he's getting her out quickly. Maybe he I think he's got a contract with Nespresso or something and has a very strong Nespresso shot in a very nice kitchen.

Speaker2:
Right? Yeah. Because you always use the products you you're sponsored by.

Speaker2:
He probably has a Red Bull. A Red Bull for breakfast. Is he sponsored by Red Bull?

Speaker1:
He's either Ferrari or Mercedes. I think he's Ferrari.

Speaker2:
Oh yeah. He's Ferrari isn't he.

Speaker1:
Oh no. Mercedes.

Speaker2:
Mercedes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well that's good.

Speaker1:
So he has a Mercedes / Nespresso shot of coffee.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Diesel.

Speaker1:
Then what? Then what? What would he do next? I was about to say, does he dry his hair after a shower. But he doesn't need to because he's not got any.

Speaker2:
Doesn't need to. Optional. I think he could have hair if he wanted.

Speaker1:
Yeah but he's streamlined; too ergonomic for that shit. Or not ergonomic. Too streamlined for that - aerodynamic. That's what I was thinking of.

Speaker2:
Yeah. He is aerodynamic. Okay. He's done his.. He's had his coffee. Does he.. What does he have for breakfast though?

Speaker1:
I think he might intermittent fast. So he might save himself until midday maybe.

Speaker2:
Oh that's an idea. So he just has a kind of power shot of of coffee in the morning.

Speaker1:
Yeah. No milk. So it's still technically fasting, apparently.

Speaker2:
Oh, yeah. [And then] Does he do some exercise in the morning? I imagine he might do some mental arithmetic or something to.. to wake up the mind, you know, or some Sudoku or something. [Oh, You reckon?] Maybe a crossword?

Speaker1:
You reckon he does one of them? Nice.

Speaker2:
I think he'd probably want to wake up his mind. He'd have some kind of morning routine that gets him alert and ready to tackle those corners on the racetrack.

Speaker1:
Yeah. He doesn't get on a PlayStation to a simulated track of his favourite track. He's.. He's better than that, isn't he? He does some Sudoku. But does that mean that he's subscribed to the Daily Telegraph?

Speaker2:
He does some Sudoku. Do they have a Sudoku? [Or, just any newspaper] Perhaps he is. I mean, that's another option. Maybe he reads the paper in the morning. Maybe he does, like, a really normal thing, like reading the paper. Some people do that every morning, don't they? They get up, they. They read the paper in the morning. I've never done that.

Speaker1:
Nor have I. No.

Speaker2:
But I imagine he do something quite efficient that he does every single morning that wakes his mind up. So let's go with, let's say, Sudoku. Okay. I don't know why, but why not?

Speaker1:
Well, he puts on his Mercedes cap, heads out to face the day. What car is he driving? Because he can't drive his Formula One car. That's that's only. That's not allowed on the road. It's got to be a road car. [It's not] No.

Speaker2:
Is it not road-legal?

Speaker1:
No. No. He won't get insured. He won't. No. It literally wouldn't be allowed. It's illegal.

Speaker1:
You are being illegal. Lewis, back up.

Speaker2:
I'm just thinking, if his bed is a car, maybe he just drives his bed straight out.

Speaker1:
I wasn't thinking that his his bed had an actual engine. I was thinking it was just in the shape of a car. But yeah, fair enough.

Speaker2:
If you have the money, why not? It doesn't even have to get up. Maybe he makes his Nespresso slash Mercedes coffee in the car/bed. [Okay] And then drives to work.

Speaker1:
You're making me think of a bit of a Mr. Bean alarm clock now.

Speaker2:
Yeah. He sleeps in the garage.

Speaker1:
Wakes up. Goodbye, So and so, on you go! He opens the garage door, she goes out, and then he boom, boom, boom, boom.

Speaker2:
That is efficient, though, isn't it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Yeah, that's very efficient. And then maybe at every traffic light he does Sudoku.

Speaker2:
Yeah, that's it, at the traffic lights.

Speaker1:
God, I hate waiting for traffic lights. I'm always first!

Speaker2:
Exactly. Quick Sudoku. And then I wonder how many Sudoku he gets through on his way to the racetrack.

Speaker1:
Yeah. Then yeah. Can't really imagine how else his day pans out. Maybe he's. Maybe he's. But I don't want to be too business-oriented. I want to be focusing on the Britishness of it. So I don't want to be like, Oh, he speaks to his sponsors.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Okay. So he is a British man, right?

Speaker1:
He is. Yes.

Speaker2:
If you were a successful Formula One driver who just slept in his garage, in his bed car and started driving to work, what very British thing might you do on the way to work? Bear in mind, you haven't actually had a proper breakfast yet.

Speaker1:
Oh, there's Greggs.

Speaker2:
You might stop off and have a full English. [Okay] Oh, Greggs.

Speaker1:
Yeah. I was just thinking, you know, I've only got five minutes to spare. I want a cheeky bean and cheese melt pasty, so I'm going to pop into Greggs and then carry on. But my petrol's low, so I'll pop into the BP garage as well and maybe get a crappy Costa coffee, you know, from the vending machine and then be disappointed about my day.

Speaker2:
At last. Yeah. Good to see the human side to you, Lewis. A BP garage. Yeah, that's a very.. that's a very English thing, isn't it? He gets a Greggs, does he? Or in a garage. You can just pop in and you can get sausage rolls and pastries and stuff, can't you? Often, [that's true] you get like, fresh deli stuff.

Speaker1:
Yeah. Now you can.

Speaker2:
Maybe even a samosa.

Speaker1:
Oh yeah, that's an option. But I'm feeling Greggs, so I'll save myself and get my Greggs after my petrol. Yeah.

Speaker2:
It's more Sudoku time. Yeah. That's Lewis Hamilton, I guess. Should we go on to someone else?

Speaker1:
So, morning routines.

Speaker2:
Morning routine. Lewis Hamilton - Done.

Speaker1:
Yeah. How does each celebrity wake up in the morning?

Speaker2:
Well, we could go for the next part of the day for someone else if you want.

Speaker1:
Interesting.

Speaker2:
Well, let's see what comes to us. Who's the next celeb?

Speaker1:
The next one I had in mind is Sir David Attenborough. We have come to the end of part one, so feel free to take a break from your listening practice, but if you're happy to keep going, then we're now moving on to part two of this episode. Thanks so much for being a premium or Academy member and enjoy the rest of the show.

Speaker2:
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, right. Okay. Do you want to say who Sir David Attenborough is?

Speaker1:
Sure. Yeah. If you don't know, he is one of the biggest treasures known to the UK. He is a natural wildlife documentary commentator. A bit more than that, but that's what he's well known for. Yeah. Now a personality on TV. But predominantly he is the commentary of every good wildlife documentary a Brit watches. I was blown away. I think I've told you this or said this on the podcast that Oprah Winfrey does the commentary for the same documentary for Americans.

Speaker2:
Really?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Oh, wow. I really can't imagine enjoying that anywhere near as much. [No. Yeah.] David Attenborough's voice is just so, like, so iconic, isn't it?

Speaker1:
It really is. Yes. David Attenborough is probably pushing 80. Would you say?

Speaker2:
90. He'll be pushing 90. He's seriously old.

Speaker1:
Oh, my goodness. He's 97.

Speaker2:
What?

Speaker1:
Oh, he's 97.

Speaker2:
He's pushing 100. I've never said that. He is pushing 100.

Speaker1:
Goodness me. We are both taken aback.

Speaker2:
That's mad I am taken b-b-b-b aback. Yeah.

Speaker1:
And I said it in the present. Okay, let's. Let's imagine. All right, so we've done Lewis's morning. Let's try and do David's mid-afternoon. He's done his morning routine.

Speaker2:
He's fed all the animals.

Speaker1:
So now that he's 97, I wouldn't imagine he's on scene doing the commentary. He's normally probably just doing the voiceover in a studio in London, probably.

Speaker2:
Or a home home studio.

Speaker1:
A home studio. Yeah. They come to him. Yeah.

Speaker2:
Yeah. I mean, he's going to be absolutely minted, isn't he? He's going to have enough money to kit his house out with a lovely studio. [Yeah] And there's no doubt the, the crew would be happy to come to his house to record.

Speaker1:
Absolutely. I'm thinking Hampstead. He's in north London, quite far away from the city of the hubbub, the the hustle and bustle and.. But in a very leafy, prosperous, beautiful area, Hampstead. I think that's where Gervais lives as well.

Speaker2:
Is it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Big houses.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I can see him. I can see him there.

Speaker1:
Ricky Gervais, that is guys, the comedian that is also very famous in the UK for creating the sitcom called The Office. But yeah, so maybe he's neighbours with Gervais. Maybe. Ah, you all right, Gervais? I'm just going to do a recording of a sloth. I'll be back out after.

Speaker2:
Oh, you all right? Hello, Ricky. Ricky.

Speaker1:
Are you being David or being David doing a sloth?

Speaker2:
I'm being David Attenborough in the morning. Late morning,[Late morning] after he's fed all the pets he has.

Speaker1:
Does he have a lot of pets? Of course he does.

Speaker2:
He's gotta. He's got to have. He loves animals. Unless it's all just a front and actually, he hates animals.

Speaker1:
Not even in jest, Harry. No, he loves them. He absolutely loves them. He's got a giraffe in the back and a gorilla in the front.

Speaker2:
In the sack. Yeah.

Speaker1:
No, he's got a chimpanzee butler.

Speaker2:
A chimpanzee butler. Okay, well, this sounds a bit like slavery, to be honest. It's animal slavery.

Speaker1:
He gives him a good wage, and he gives him all the PG tips he can have.

Speaker2:
Yeah? Is he sponsored by PG Tips, then?

Speaker1:
No. Just, you know, monkeys, according to PG tips, like PG tips - "Monkey".

Speaker2:
Oh, yeah. Was that, uh. Was that an advert? Where there was a monkey making a tea with Johnny Vegas. Oh, God, I haven't thought about that for a long time.

Speaker1:
Yeah, that was probably in the noughties. A very famous campaign. Or maybe the.. the tens. Johnny Vegas. A rather overweight comedian. British comedian. Do you know whereabouts he's from?

Speaker2:
Oh, isn't he like Midlands? Like Birmingham?

Speaker1:
I'd guess that. Yeah. [Leeds?] Lancashire.

Speaker2:
Okay. So near. Well, Leeds way.

Speaker1:
He was a good stand-up comedian in that time. And then he had a contract, I guess with PG Tips, which is a famous tea that is mostly accommodating to the working class.

Speaker2:
Would you say PG tips or do you think that's their target market? I think it's, I have PG tips.

Speaker1:
But I think like it's known as a builder's brew, right? [Yeah] Whereas whereas like Earl Grey, Twinings kind of brand that would be more of like a Stephen Fry middle-class kind of advert, wouldn't it? It would be. Yeah.

Speaker2:
It's true. Yeah. Yeah. But I think anyone would be happy with a PG Tips. [Oh yeah.] But maybe, Yeah, it's being advertised as a solid British brew. Yeah. Yeah. No, no frills. Yeah, it is what it is.

Speaker1:
The campaign did well because he did it with a monkey and the slogan was pretty much just "monkey", wasn't it? Just that. But it associated with monkey getting Johnny Vegas a good cup of tea.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Completely forgotten. I need to rewatch that because I don't remember it. Is that where.. Because Ricky Gervais, another comedian that we were mentioning who lives just around the corner from David Attenborough, apparently. He has a quote in the office in his series. He says, "monkey" is he quoting that advert?

Speaker1:
Yeah, I think because he has a similar resemblance to Johnny Vegas, David Brent, the character, people were like, Oh, Johnny Vegas looks like him. Yeah. Yeah. So he's self-deprecating to the team to be this hilarious manager. But yeah, so why were we talking about Johnny Vegas?

Speaker2:
Because David Attenborough has got a monkey. [Oh. Oh, yes] in his house, making cooking up a lovely home brew.

Speaker1:
Yes. The monkey gets as much money and PG tips as he wants. [Yes.] Or as much money to buy PG tips.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Morning routines Done. His monkey has made him a lovely brew. Yeah, a lovely cup of tea. And he's got his home recording studio. We're happy with that. So he doesn't have to leave the house for work.

Speaker1:
No. BBC are coming to him to record the next Netflix show. Probably. Yeah. What's he having for lunch?

Speaker1:
We have come to the end of part two now. So again, feel free to pause the episode two, take a break from your listening practice and come back to the last part when you're ready. All right. So moving on to part three now. Enjoy.

Speaker2:
But he's so old. He's so old, isn't he? Let's have a moment just to take in his his age. He is 97. He's probably going to be looking after his his diet, probably mainly quite soft foods, I imagine.

Speaker1:
Oh, I'd love a roast. Do you want me to whizz that up in the smoothie in the blender? That would thank you. In the blender for you. Oh, yeah, that'd be lovely. Suck it through a straw.

Speaker2:
Listening to him like his diction is perfect, so he's clearly got all of his teeth. But they could. They could be false.

Speaker1:
They could be false teeth. Yes.

Speaker2:
Because if there's something we know about David Attenborough, he is an absolute liar.

Speaker1:
Don't! I feel uncomfortable broadcasting that. That's how innocent and great he is, isn't it? It feels wrong.

Speaker2:
Yeah. No, he's. He's, um. He's a treasure. Like you said. He's a household name that everybody. Everyone in the UK knows who David Attenborough is. And if you haven't watched one of his documentaries, you just, you need to like. His voice is just like, smooth chocolate, isn't it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. People would be so shocked if you didn't know who he was, if you were a Brit. They would be like, Where have you been? Under a rock?

Speaker2:
Yeah, exactly. No, he's great. So what's he up to in the afternoon, then? So he has a recording session. He's done that. Does he do any exercise? Do you think he might do some light exercise?

Speaker1:
I think he probably goes for a walk. A very short walk with I mean, I know I've got sausage dogs, but I feel like he might have a sausage dog.

Speaker2:
A sausage dog.

Speaker1:
Is that weird? Okay. Does he want a sausage dog?

Speaker2:
I think. Why not? I mean sausage dogs don't go on long walks, do they? And at the age of 97, he's probably not going to be going on long. I don't know. I don't want to be kind of limiting this guy, but that is seriously, seriously old.

Speaker1:
He does go on talk shows still. I saw him on, um, the Jonathan Ross show fairly recently, I think. Or maybe that was a repeat, but still he looked quite old then.

Speaker2:
Did he walk there?

Speaker1:
Hahahahaha no, I'm just meaning that he gets out and about.

Speaker2:
Yeah. No, no doubt about that. He's so active isn't it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. A little sausage dog maybe going for a walk with his sausage dog down to the village in Hampstead and he's got a flat cap on?

Speaker2:
Yeah. Because he's going to get recognised so much isn't he? [Yeah] So you want to hide your .. maybe he wears a mask.

Speaker1:
Imagine if he wore a mask of another famous person, just to get a break because he's that famous.

Speaker2:
David Beckham.

Speaker1:
Or Gervais. That'd be hilarious to go past Ricky Gervais's house wearing a face mask just to try and get a break.

Speaker2:
Maybe he does that just to kind of he's a wind-up he's an absolute wind-up merchant. [Yeah] He likes to take the Mickey out of his neighbours. So that's his daily routine is he has like a room full of different masks of different famous people's faces. And he thinks, okay, which 1 am I going to wear today?

Speaker1:
Yeah. And then he goes past them waving as he goes past their drive and they're on the balcony cackling because. Oh, David. There's David up to his old tricks. He's 97. If he's careful, he'll die in my mask if he's not careful. Sorry.

Speaker2:
Oh, my God. Ricky Gervais is dead. Oh, no. It's David Attenborough.

Speaker1:
Please be careful, David. Okay, so he's gone on his walk. Maybe he goes to the newsagent's on the way back. Maybe he's got a habit of still doing the lottery because his generation did that non-stop, didn't they?

Speaker2:
Wait, if you're you're 97 and mega-rich, would you bother wasting the precious time that you have left to buy a lottery ticket? Or are you saying it's just out of habit?

Speaker1:
It's out of habit because, you know, my parents' generation kind of do it and yours. They go into the lottery. I think that's crazy to do a lottery. I think that's kind of signing away your own power to kind of become rich yourself by doing hopefully well in your work. I think to to have to go every week and say one day I'll be the winner. I think that's I think we've been taught, you know, make money for yourself. You can do it. It's a possibility. But but their generation were probably like, again, I'm stereotyping the class-based system but like their generation is probably like, well, I could only get mega rich if I won the lottery and maybe that habit started in his childhood. His parents did it. He does it. He's got his set numbers that he wants to desperately win with before he dies. That will really give him a kick. Sure, he'll give it to WWF, not the Wrestling Federation.

Speaker2:
Yeah, the wildlife charity. WWf World Wildlife Fund. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably what he would do. Yeah. It's just out of habit. And his numbers, they would be like the birthdays of his all of his pets. [Yeah] So he's.

Speaker1:
That's a long number. Probably because of all the pets.

Speaker2:
Because. Because he hasn't seen his kids for a long time.

Speaker1:
Does he have family?

Speaker2:
No. Oh I think so. No. He has a he probably has a great relationship with his kids. [Yeah] He'd be a lovely dad. Wouldn't he? He'd be a lovely dad.

Speaker1:
Yes. He's got Robert and Susan. Yes. Who are probably, you know, pensioners. Right? [Yeah. Yeah] Goodness me. Yeah. Robert probably. Robert looks as old as David.

Speaker2:
Imagine that.

Speaker1:
Wow.

Speaker2:
Oh, my God. Imagine going out for a coffee or you're meeting your dad for lunch, and then you're confused as your dad's brother.

Speaker1:
Or they ask you for your autograph. David? [Yeah. Oh, God] No that's my dad.

Speaker2:
You're looking very youthful today, David. My dad's 97. I'm not David.

Speaker1:
He's sat with Gervais, though, isn't he? With the mask on. [Yeah] Right. I'm aware that I've kept you too long. We'll have to leave it there. We'll leave the evening routine of JK Rowling bowling. I always think of how to pronounce her name. It's like bowling.

Speaker2:
Rowling?

Speaker1:
No, it's bold. It's rolling. Yeah. They say it wrong in America. Yeah. J.k. Rowling. Like tenpin bowling. I think they say it.

Speaker2:
Sorry. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that. They also say it wrongly here.

Speaker1:
Okay. Yes, but you said it in an American accent then. Rowling. [Rowling] Okay.

Speaker2:
I've never said I've never heard JK Rowling. Okay. Anyway, yeah. Good author. I wonder. Yeah. She just spends the whole day writing, I imagine.

Speaker1:
Yeah. But then the evening probably on Twitter regretting her tweets about, you know what..

Speaker2:
Writing on Twitter. Yeah, writing and reading all day, baby.

Speaker1:
Okay, well, we will leave it there. Thank you very much, Harry. I appreciate your time, as always. And well done, listeners, for getting to the end of this particularly messy but hopefully fun journey.

Speaker2:
I hope so. Yeah. I hope you enjoyed the mess, guys. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker1:
It's good listening practice because we went all over the place, didn't we?

Speaker2:
And lots of cultural references that people should look up. These people like Johnny Vegas, Ricky Gervais, David Attenborough. These are, these are legends.

Speaker1:
PG Tips. Also a legend. No, not.

Speaker2:
Absolute legend in the making arena.

Speaker1:
Yeah, Yeah. And all the brands that we mentioned, I'll be putting them in the flashcards for everyone who has signed up to the premium or academy memberships. But we'll leave it there. Thank you very much, Harry. And we'll see you guys next week on the British English podcast. Bye-bye, Harry.

Speaker2:
Bye bye.

Speaker3:
There we go. The end of part three, meaning the end of the episode. Well done for getting through the entirety of it. Make sure you use all of the resources available to you in your membership. Thanks once again for supporting the show and I look forward to seeing you next time on the British English Podcast.

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Transcript of Premium Bonus049 - Transcript

Speaker1:
Hello and welcome to another episode of the British English podcast. In this episode, we're going to be looking at some famous people in the UK and we're going to be imagining what their daily routines are like. And I'm doing it with Harry the the one and only Harry Gyles. How are you doing today?

Speaker2:
I thought you were going to say the nutcase. Harry Gyles. I heard you say the one and only. Not not nutcase. He's not a nutcase. Not anymore.

Speaker1:
No, he's not a nutcase. He's a normal man. Would you say you're a normal man?

Speaker2:
A normal man? No. I don't want to be a normal man. I don't know. Do you think people would describe me as a normal man? Would you describe me? Yeah. My mate Harry, he's a normal man. Would. How would you describe me?

Speaker1:
Nutcase.

Speaker2:
I don't know. I'm not - nutcase. Exactly. There you go. Nutcase.

Speaker1:
No. I would say probably you're closer to nutcase, if it was a continuum, than normal man.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I'd agree. I'd agree with that. I'm happy to be up the nutty end.

Speaker1:
What about me? [That's good.] I don't like the idea of what you're going to say, but..

Speaker2:
I'd say you're kind of bang in the middle. [Okay?] Because you are in many ways you are quite eccentric, but then in other ways you're very normal. So like, it kind of it balances out. You're dead in the middle of the spectrum, to be honest. [Yeah] Which I think that's where you want to be, really.

Speaker1:
Yeah, potentially. It's interesting [because that enables you. Sorry] No, no. I was just thinking how I was fearing the idea of being closer to normal than nutcase.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I know you were. And that's why I didn't. I didn't send you over that way. But I know no one wants to be totally normal because normal is boring. [Yes] But also, being normal means you conform to certain, like, social norms. And, like, I think you're quite professional. And being professional is like something that's considered quite normal. [Yeah] And generally desired by other professionals and stuff. That's definitely a big aspect of being normal. [Yeah] I find it impossible to be normal. I teach business English, but I'm just dying for the moment where I can start talking about anuses and piss.

Speaker1:
It'd be great if you shocked your business English clients. Like today we're going to be talking about piss, anuses.

Speaker2:
I sometimes I push it and I just see - what can I get these guys to talk about? I'm so bored. I'm like, Oh, you're talking about insurance again. Oh, I just. Today I did the biggest shit. [Oh, God] No, not really. I don't.

Speaker1:
At the end of Q1, we're all going to have a big orgy.

Speaker1:
Yeah. Q Q1?

Speaker1:
Well, that's business vocabulary, isn't it?

Speaker2:
Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. See, you should be doing that. Have you done any business English podcasts?

Speaker1:
No, no, I haven't, actually. I've had Lindsay from all ears English and she's quite business. English, that's her focus kind of. I don't think we focussed on business English. My conversation .. yeah, my conversation would dry up pretty quickly. It gets a bit formal as soon as you start talking about stuff like that. But then the business world, like with all these start-ups and modern businesses, entrepreneurs, it's not so formal now, is it? [No Yeah] Simo said in his first interview for a Big Company. Simo is one of my best friends, by the way, guys. He started working for a company that make Candy Crush. They're called King, I think they're called that now. And his interviewer turned up in flip-flops and shorts. [Wow] And and he was really taken back by it. He was like, what is this guy doing running this business? This is crazy. [Yeah] But, you know, the world is becoming less, less formal.

Speaker1:
Yes, it is. Yeah. [The business world] Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Think in Australia it was quite common that as well to be just in flip flops. But also. Yeah. A guy that I met, he was in a tank top and flip flops and he had just come from the office and was like assuming that he's like an underling kind of just doing some admin.

Speaker1:
He was like, No, I own the business. Like I've got 50 employees. It's like, Wow.

Speaker2:
I've got 50 million in the bank, motherfucker. Nice to meet you.

Speaker1:
Earlier you said taken back. I think it is taken aback, isn't it? But it's interesting.

Speaker2:
It is but no one says that.

Speaker1:
Really? I think I do say that. But maybe that's because I know you do. Everyday, normal guy.

Speaker2:
That's because you've looked it up on Cambridge Dictionary. [Yes] And you've gone, I'm going to say aback. I know. Lots of people do say it aback. I'd say more people say taken back. [Okay] That's me. I've just decided most people in the English-speaking parts of the world say, taken back. I've made that decision on behalf of English everywhere. [Yes. Okay. So, guys].

Speaker2:
But there is actually a good way we could test that, isn't there?

Speaker1:
How?

Speaker2:
We could go on youglish and type in taken back. [Oh] And then we could type in taken aback and we could compare.

Speaker1:
Because they say how many times it came up. You do taken back and I'll do taken aback.

Speaker2:
Okay. You're going to be taken back by the result. Ash. Ashley. Charlie.

Speaker1:
Who's Ashley? Are you cheating on me?

Speaker2:
Well, I've got one friend called Ashley, and I barely ever see him, so I don't know why his name came out.

Speaker1:
Yeah, well, you're going to be taken aback. I've got 712. I've got 2120.

Speaker2:
Wow. We've actually. You've impressed me by this tool as in utilising it for this exact thing. That's great. And also [very good] we can even categorise it by American, British or Australian, can't we? With that tab at the top.

Speaker2:
We can. So maybe in America. Let's go America, shall we?

Speaker1:
Yes, let's do it. Um, I would. I'm going to be crude and guess that Brits are more likely to say taken aback.

Speaker2:
Okay. I've just realised a bit of a flaw in my argument here because sometimes we say taken back in different ways. [of course] So we'd have to write a whole phrase. I am taken back. For example. Shall we rephrase it? [Yeah] Because otherwise, like I've got an example here, two decades later, the Taliban have taken back power.

Speaker1:
Yeah the experiment flops. I would say maybe we type in. I was because we don't really say I am, do we? We would talk about the moment that we were surprised. Okay. [Okay. I was taken back] I was taken aback, for me.

Speaker2:
Again this I'm just imagining someone like has just been through a separation. But then they were taken back by their partner. So actually this might not work either. Can we say I was taken back by but then it's too long, isn't it?

Speaker1:
No but that still works.

Speaker1:
I was taken back by my ex. [Let's go with that. I was taken. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no] Because taken back by my ex is literal, isn't it? We're not using the phrase. So I'm saying.

Speaker2:
Charlie, I'm going to have to go through these one by one, aren't I? All 2000 of them?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Let's just take 2000 hours of your time. Or maybe 2000 minutes. Well, let's just say I was taken aback. I've got 281 hits. How many have you got for I was taken back.

Speaker2:
For that, I've got 83. [Okay] Oh, okay. That might. [That might be] Oh, no, that's just America. That's just America, mate. [Oh] Okay. Only 111. [Okay] That's mad. So 83 of the results were in America. The other, what, 18 were definitely done the maths, no, I think that's right, were the rest of the world? [Yeah] So it's all U.S people being taken back.

Speaker1:
That's what my prediction was. Those sloppy Americans taking out unnecessary vowels or sounds. [Vowel, vowel sounds..] Yeah. So maybe that's right [and letters]. Americans are more likely to say taken back based on our incredibly thorough research and Brits are more likely to say taken aback. But still, Harry thinks that everyone says taken back and that's fine. You know, that was eight minutes of instructional content that is not needed, really, isn't it? Because you can say both.

Speaker1:
Pretty much. You're welcome, guys. Keep on listening. More coming. We're here today to talk about daily routines, which we haven't done yet. So let's get into that. I've got a few celebrities here that I'm going to give you and you can choose from. I'm just looking at some that I think you'd enjoy. Very famous Formula One driver, Lewis Hamilton. He's pretty cool, don't you think?

Speaker2:
Yeah, I think he's quite cool.

Speaker1:
Wears very nice watches, races fast cars. [Yeah] Has very attractive women around him.

Speaker2:
Does he?

Speaker1:
That's apparently cool. Well he married [That is cool] Nicole Scherzinger. What's her name from Pussycat Dolls?

Speaker2:
Scherzinger. Scherzinger. [Yeah, that one] Yeah. I think wearing nice watches, driving fast cars and being surrounded by attractive women or woman is generally considered pretty cool, which would put me pretty.

Speaker1:
Can you be surrounded by a woman?

Speaker2:
You could be. I was surrounded by her, but she's not a big girl, so I don't know if she was like wrapping herself around him, then maybe. Or maybe he's surrounded by the Pussycat Dolls. The whole group? [Yeah] In which case, yes, but are they all attractive?

Speaker1:
Yeah I think so. In their own right. Every woman is attractive, Harry.

Speaker2:
Oh, well said.

Speaker1:
Beauty in every. Every human. All right, let's do a daily routine of Lewis Hamilton. So do you reckon he's lying in a bed that is shaped like a car? Like, you know, the toy cars when you're a kid?

Speaker2:
Definitely. If he's not, I'd be very disappointed. If I was Nicole Scherzinger and I went back to his house after third date, maybe. [Okay. Yeah] How many dates do you reckon they had?

Speaker1:
Yeah, probably three. And then, shall we? Maybe.

Speaker2:
Shall we go back to mine? [Yeah] Maybe not even sharing a bed that night. Perhaps he just. Maybe he just gave her the grand tour of the house. [Of the bed-room] Of the bed. This is my bed. Yes, it's a it's a Formula One car. Yes. Guilty as charged. We won't be using that tonight.

Speaker1:
No, definitely not. You're not allowed in that, sponsors only. So he wakes up in a Formula One-shaped mattress. And then is he waking up from an alarm or is he just naturally coming to.

Speaker2:
That's a good question. That's a really good question. I imagine he's got a an absolutely lovely house, a massive window right in front of the in front of the bed. And so he kind of wakes up with the sunrise.

Speaker1:
Oh, okay. Does he wake up, look in the mirror and think, Hello, Me?

Speaker2:
You would, wouldn't you? Because he's pretty cool. He's pretty good-looking. [Yeah] He's not that good-looking. He's just a decent-looking bloke isn't he. [Yeah. Yeah] With a lovely watch on his wrist.

Speaker2:
Does he sleep in his watch though? That's a good question.

Speaker1:
In? Does he sleep with his watch on, would you say?

Speaker2:
With his watch on. I'm wearing. I'm in a watch. Get me out of here! Yeah, you're right. Yeah. No, with his watch on. Yeah. Appreciate the second correction of the day.

Speaker1:
Shall we see which one is used more on Youglish.

Speaker2:
Yeah. He's in a watch. No, you're right. Yeah, I'm in a jacket. Sounds weird as well. Yeah, You wouldn't say that, would you? I'm wearing a jacket.

Speaker1:
I put my jacket on. [Yeah] Are you feeling all right?

Speaker2:
Yeah but you do say in with some things that you wear, don't you? I mean, I'm in the shit.

Speaker1:
I'm in over my head - to be in over your head. Let's just keep the conversation structured, somewhat. What does that mean in over their head? Somebody is in over their head. They are.

Speaker2:
You're overwhelmed with work or something. [Yeah] You're in too deep.

Speaker1:
Yeah. You've got too many watches to sleep with. You're stressed about it.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Uh, which watch do I wear? Yeah, this is. This is awful. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I think he would probably wake up and just sit straight up. [Yeah] So if he's got an alarm, he'd get straight up. He wouldn't be someone to just, like, you know, toss and turn and be like, uh, you know, he wouldn't.

Speaker1:
He wouldn't scroll Instagram for 30 minutes.

Speaker1:
He'd be up straight away. No? Oh, you're thinking he wants to have a little look at how many followers he's got or something.

Speaker2:
Maybe. Yeah. He might sit up and then I don't think he'd check his followers.

Speaker1:
How many does Nicole have and how many do I have? For God's sake! She's still got more.

Speaker2:
But most of them are because of me. Let's. Come on.

Speaker1:
Pussycat Dolls that died a long time ago. Come on. I've kept her going. Yes, she's been on X Factor billions of times. But, you know, it's mainly me and the fast cars and my bed.

Speaker2:
Are they in a serious relationship?

Speaker1:
I think they got married, but they may have broken up. Can't remember.

Speaker2:
So she hasn't taken his name. But that's quite common these days, isn't it, for the the woman not to actually take the name. [Yes] Like Stacey.

Speaker1:
Well, Stacey wants to do it once we have a child. If we are blessed with such a gift or a challenge. That way she feels like it's less patriarchal, patriarchal and patriarchal and more holistic or family-oriented. Because my sisters have lost our family name and her brothers are going to both keep their family name. I was like, maybe keep Baxter instead of hers for when we have a child.

Speaker2:
Good idea, get rid of Benson.

Speaker1:
I'm leaning towards not caring at all now because I don't really like the idea of her reminding me like..like my mum. Like Mrs. Baxter. That's my mum. I don't want her to be Mrs. Baxter. That's weird.

Speaker2:
What about Mrs. Benson? Baxter?

Speaker1:
That's a bit much.

Speaker2:
Baxter Benson?

Speaker1:
I think they're too similar to do double-barrelled. I think double-barrelled is only. Only really necessary if they're very different and one of them sounds a bit weird on its own. Like Holly, my sister, she was going to be Holly Horne and the ... and and the Horne is H-O-R-N-E, so people would be like Holly horny. So she's done Holly Baxter Horne. And that kind of flows a bit better.

Speaker2:
That works. Or horny Baxter?

Speaker1:
Yeah. I mean, that would have been a better choice, wouldn't it?

Speaker2:
Sorry. We keep digressing. So he hasn't even got up yet. He's scrolling through his Instagram.

Speaker1:
Oh, she is. I just checked. She is a former lover of his.

Speaker2:
Oh, okay. Just a lover. Okay. So, yeah, he gets up and he.. he sends whatever lovely lady he has in bed with him that day on her way. [Oh, right] I imagine. Or do you think he makes her breakfast?

Speaker1:
Hmm. I think I don't think he's got time. I think he needs to get down to the track and do some, maybe some G-force training in the gym.

Speaker2:
Can't he just go to, like, Disneyland or Alton Towers?

Speaker1:
Yeah, he gets the fast-track ticket straight away. They're like, Oh, Louis is here. Give him the fast track entry to the the best roller coaster we've got.

Speaker2:
What is it? It was the G-force. There was that awful ride, wasn't there. Where you're in, just like a kind of a round circle. Oh, okay. Round circle. As opposed to a square circle. And you just spun around loads. That's a horrible G-force ride.

Speaker1:
Yeah that sounds like the kind of ride that astronauts have to take. You know, in those films, when they're training for G-force, they're in that kind of right circular.

Speaker2:
You're in a big kind of cylinder.

Speaker1:
Yeah, in a little cabin going around really, really quickly. Do you reckon.. I know it's digressing, but do you think you could handle G-force well?

Speaker2:
No. No, thank you. Okay. No, I hate that. I think I went on one of those G-force rollercoasters or rides, and I hated every second of it.

Speaker1:
Were you taken aback by how horrible it was?

Speaker2:
I was taken aback by....

Speaker1:
Ahh I thought you would say back, just to be spiteful. You've done it. You didn't like it, Lewis bloody loves it, obviously. So he's looking forward to that G-force feeling. So he's getting her out quickly. Maybe he I think he's got a contract with Nespresso or something and has a very strong Nespresso shot in a very nice kitchen.

Speaker2:
Right? Yeah. Because you always use the products you you're sponsored by.

Speaker2:
He probably has a Red Bull. A Red Bull for breakfast. Is he sponsored by Red Bull?

Speaker1:
He's either Ferrari or Mercedes. I think he's Ferrari.

Speaker2:
Oh yeah. He's Ferrari isn't he.

Speaker1:
Oh no. Mercedes.

Speaker2:
Mercedes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well that's good.

Speaker1:
So he has a Mercedes / Nespresso shot of coffee.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Diesel.

Speaker1:
Then what? Then what? What would he do next? I was about to say, does he dry his hair after a shower. But he doesn't need to because he's not got any.

Speaker2:
Doesn't need to. Optional. I think he could have hair if he wanted.

Speaker1:
Yeah but he's streamlined; too ergonomic for that shit. Or not ergonomic. Too streamlined for that - aerodynamic. That's what I was thinking of.

Speaker2:
Yeah. He is aerodynamic. Okay. He's done his.. He's had his coffee. Does he.. What does he have for breakfast though?

Speaker1:
I think he might intermittent fast. So he might save himself until midday maybe.

Speaker2:
Oh that's an idea. So he just has a kind of power shot of of coffee in the morning.

Speaker1:
Yeah. No milk. So it's still technically fasting, apparently.

Speaker2:
Oh, yeah. [And then] Does he do some exercise in the morning? I imagine he might do some mental arithmetic or something to.. to wake up the mind, you know, or some Sudoku or something. [Oh, You reckon?] Maybe a crossword?

Speaker1:
You reckon he does one of them? Nice.

Speaker2:
I think he'd probably want to wake up his mind. He'd have some kind of morning routine that gets him alert and ready to tackle those corners on the racetrack.

Speaker1:
Yeah. He doesn't get on a PlayStation to a simulated track of his favourite track. He's.. He's better than that, isn't he? He does some Sudoku. But does that mean that he's subscribed to the Daily Telegraph?

Speaker2:
He does some Sudoku. Do they have a Sudoku? [Or, just any newspaper] Perhaps he is. I mean, that's another option. Maybe he reads the paper in the morning. Maybe he does, like, a really normal thing, like reading the paper. Some people do that every morning, don't they? They get up, they. They read the paper in the morning. I've never done that.

Speaker1:
Nor have I. No.

Speaker2:
But I imagine he do something quite efficient that he does every single morning that wakes his mind up. So let's go with, let's say, Sudoku. Okay. I don't know why, but why not?

Speaker1:
Well, he puts on his Mercedes cap, heads out to face the day. What car is he driving? Because he can't drive his Formula One car. That's that's only. That's not allowed on the road. It's got to be a road car. [It's not] No.

Speaker2:
Is it not road-legal?

Speaker1:
No. No. He won't get insured. He won't. No. It literally wouldn't be allowed. It's illegal.

Speaker1:
You are being illegal. Lewis, back up.

Speaker2:
I'm just thinking, if his bed is a car, maybe he just drives his bed straight out.

Speaker1:
I wasn't thinking that his his bed had an actual engine. I was thinking it was just in the shape of a car. But yeah, fair enough.

Speaker2:
If you have the money, why not? It doesn't even have to get up. Maybe he makes his Nespresso slash Mercedes coffee in the car/bed. [Okay] And then drives to work.

Speaker1:
You're making me think of a bit of a Mr. Bean alarm clock now.

Speaker2:
Yeah. He sleeps in the garage.

Speaker1:
Wakes up. Goodbye, So and so, on you go! He opens the garage door, she goes out, and then he boom, boom, boom, boom.

Speaker2:
That is efficient, though, isn't it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Yeah, that's very efficient. And then maybe at every traffic light he does Sudoku.

Speaker2:
Yeah, that's it, at the traffic lights.

Speaker1:
God, I hate waiting for traffic lights. I'm always first!

Speaker2:
Exactly. Quick Sudoku. And then I wonder how many Sudoku he gets through on his way to the racetrack.

Speaker1:
Yeah. Then yeah. Can't really imagine how else his day pans out. Maybe he's. Maybe he's. But I don't want to be too business-oriented. I want to be focusing on the Britishness of it. So I don't want to be like, Oh, he speaks to his sponsors.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Okay. So he is a British man, right?

Speaker1:
He is. Yes.

Speaker2:
If you were a successful Formula One driver who just slept in his garage, in his bed car and started driving to work, what very British thing might you do on the way to work? Bear in mind, you haven't actually had a proper breakfast yet.

Speaker1:
Oh, there's Greggs.

Speaker2:
You might stop off and have a full English. [Okay] Oh, Greggs.

Speaker1:
Yeah. I was just thinking, you know, I've only got five minutes to spare. I want a cheeky bean and cheese melt pasty, so I'm going to pop into Greggs and then carry on. But my petrol's low, so I'll pop into the BP garage as well and maybe get a crappy Costa coffee, you know, from the vending machine and then be disappointed about my day.

Speaker2:
At last. Yeah. Good to see the human side to you, Lewis. A BP garage. Yeah, that's a very.. that's a very English thing, isn't it? He gets a Greggs, does he? Or in a garage. You can just pop in and you can get sausage rolls and pastries and stuff, can't you? Often, [that's true] you get like, fresh deli stuff.

Speaker1:
Yeah. Now you can.

Speaker2:
Maybe even a samosa.

Speaker1:
Oh yeah, that's an option. But I'm feeling Greggs, so I'll save myself and get my Greggs after my petrol. Yeah.

Speaker2:
It's more Sudoku time. Yeah. That's Lewis Hamilton, I guess. Should we go on to someone else?

Speaker1:
So, morning routines.

Speaker2:
Morning routine. Lewis Hamilton - Done.

Speaker1:
Yeah. How does each celebrity wake up in the morning?

Speaker2:
Well, we could go for the next part of the day for someone else if you want.

Speaker1:
Interesting.

Speaker2:
Well, let's see what comes to us. Who's the next celeb?

Speaker1:
The next one I had in mind is Sir David Attenborough. We have come to the end of part one, so feel free to take a break from your listening practice, but if you're happy to keep going, then we're now moving on to part two of this episode. Thanks so much for being a premium or Academy member and enjoy the rest of the show.

Speaker2:
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, right. Okay. Do you want to say who Sir David Attenborough is?

Speaker1:
Sure. Yeah. If you don't know, he is one of the biggest treasures known to the UK. He is a natural wildlife documentary commentator. A bit more than that, but that's what he's well known for. Yeah. Now a personality on TV. But predominantly he is the commentary of every good wildlife documentary a Brit watches. I was blown away. I think I've told you this or said this on the podcast that Oprah Winfrey does the commentary for the same documentary for Americans.

Speaker2:
Really?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Oh, wow. I really can't imagine enjoying that anywhere near as much. [No. Yeah.] David Attenborough's voice is just so, like, so iconic, isn't it?

Speaker1:
It really is. Yes. David Attenborough is probably pushing 80. Would you say?

Speaker2:
90. He'll be pushing 90. He's seriously old.

Speaker1:
Oh, my goodness. He's 97.

Speaker2:
What?

Speaker1:
Oh, he's 97.

Speaker2:
He's pushing 100. I've never said that. He is pushing 100.

Speaker1:
Goodness me. We are both taken aback.

Speaker2:
That's mad I am taken b-b-b-b aback. Yeah.

Speaker1:
And I said it in the present. Okay, let's. Let's imagine. All right, so we've done Lewis's morning. Let's try and do David's mid-afternoon. He's done his morning routine.

Speaker2:
He's fed all the animals.

Speaker1:
So now that he's 97, I wouldn't imagine he's on scene doing the commentary. He's normally probably just doing the voiceover in a studio in London, probably.

Speaker2:
Or a home home studio.

Speaker1:
A home studio. Yeah. They come to him. Yeah.

Speaker2:
Yeah. I mean, he's going to be absolutely minted, isn't he? He's going to have enough money to kit his house out with a lovely studio. [Yeah] And there's no doubt the, the crew would be happy to come to his house to record.

Speaker1:
Absolutely. I'm thinking Hampstead. He's in north London, quite far away from the city of the hubbub, the the hustle and bustle and.. But in a very leafy, prosperous, beautiful area, Hampstead. I think that's where Gervais lives as well.

Speaker2:
Is it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. Big houses.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I can see him. I can see him there.

Speaker1:
Ricky Gervais, that is guys, the comedian that is also very famous in the UK for creating the sitcom called The Office. But yeah, so maybe he's neighbours with Gervais. Maybe. Ah, you all right, Gervais? I'm just going to do a recording of a sloth. I'll be back out after.

Speaker2:
Oh, you all right? Hello, Ricky. Ricky.

Speaker1:
Are you being David or being David doing a sloth?

Speaker2:
I'm being David Attenborough in the morning. Late morning,[Late morning] after he's fed all the pets he has.

Speaker1:
Does he have a lot of pets? Of course he does.

Speaker2:
He's gotta. He's got to have. He loves animals. Unless it's all just a front and actually, he hates animals.

Speaker1:
Not even in jest, Harry. No, he loves them. He absolutely loves them. He's got a giraffe in the back and a gorilla in the front.

Speaker2:
In the sack. Yeah.

Speaker1:
No, he's got a chimpanzee butler.

Speaker2:
A chimpanzee butler. Okay, well, this sounds a bit like slavery, to be honest. It's animal slavery.

Speaker1:
He gives him a good wage, and he gives him all the PG tips he can have.

Speaker2:
Yeah? Is he sponsored by PG Tips, then?

Speaker1:
No. Just, you know, monkeys, according to PG tips, like PG tips - "Monkey".

Speaker2:
Oh, yeah. Was that, uh. Was that an advert? Where there was a monkey making a tea with Johnny Vegas. Oh, God, I haven't thought about that for a long time.

Speaker1:
Yeah, that was probably in the noughties. A very famous campaign. Or maybe the.. the tens. Johnny Vegas. A rather overweight comedian. British comedian. Do you know whereabouts he's from?

Speaker2:
Oh, isn't he like Midlands? Like Birmingham?

Speaker1:
I'd guess that. Yeah. [Leeds?] Lancashire.

Speaker2:
Okay. So near. Well, Leeds way.

Speaker1:
He was a good stand-up comedian in that time. And then he had a contract, I guess with PG Tips, which is a famous tea that is mostly accommodating to the working class.

Speaker2:
Would you say PG tips or do you think that's their target market? I think it's, I have PG tips.

Speaker1:
But I think like it's known as a builder's brew, right? [Yeah] Whereas whereas like Earl Grey, Twinings kind of brand that would be more of like a Stephen Fry middle-class kind of advert, wouldn't it? It would be. Yeah.

Speaker2:
It's true. Yeah. Yeah. But I think anyone would be happy with a PG Tips. [Oh yeah.] But maybe, Yeah, it's being advertised as a solid British brew. Yeah. Yeah. No, no frills. Yeah, it is what it is.

Speaker1:
The campaign did well because he did it with a monkey and the slogan was pretty much just "monkey", wasn't it? Just that. But it associated with monkey getting Johnny Vegas a good cup of tea.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Completely forgotten. I need to rewatch that because I don't remember it. Is that where.. Because Ricky Gervais, another comedian that we were mentioning who lives just around the corner from David Attenborough, apparently. He has a quote in the office in his series. He says, "monkey" is he quoting that advert?

Speaker1:
Yeah, I think because he has a similar resemblance to Johnny Vegas, David Brent, the character, people were like, Oh, Johnny Vegas looks like him. Yeah. Yeah. So he's self-deprecating to the team to be this hilarious manager. But yeah, so why were we talking about Johnny Vegas?

Speaker2:
Because David Attenborough has got a monkey. [Oh. Oh, yes] in his house, making cooking up a lovely home brew.

Speaker1:
Yes. The monkey gets as much money and PG tips as he wants. [Yes.] Or as much money to buy PG tips.

Speaker2:
Yeah. Morning routines Done. His monkey has made him a lovely brew. Yeah, a lovely cup of tea. And he's got his home recording studio. We're happy with that. So he doesn't have to leave the house for work.

Speaker1:
No. BBC are coming to him to record the next Netflix show. Probably. Yeah. What's he having for lunch?

Speaker1:
We have come to the end of part two now. So again, feel free to pause the episode two, take a break from your listening practice and come back to the last part when you're ready. All right. So moving on to part three now. Enjoy.

Speaker2:
But he's so old. He's so old, isn't he? Let's have a moment just to take in his his age. He is 97. He's probably going to be looking after his his diet, probably mainly quite soft foods, I imagine.

Speaker1:
Oh, I'd love a roast. Do you want me to whizz that up in the smoothie in the blender? That would thank you. In the blender for you. Oh, yeah, that'd be lovely. Suck it through a straw.

Speaker2:
Listening to him like his diction is perfect, so he's clearly got all of his teeth. But they could. They could be false.

Speaker1:
They could be false teeth. Yes.

Speaker2:
Because if there's something we know about David Attenborough, he is an absolute liar.

Speaker1:
Don't! I feel uncomfortable broadcasting that. That's how innocent and great he is, isn't it? It feels wrong.

Speaker2:
Yeah. No, he's. He's, um. He's a treasure. Like you said. He's a household name that everybody. Everyone in the UK knows who David Attenborough is. And if you haven't watched one of his documentaries, you just, you need to like. His voice is just like, smooth chocolate, isn't it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. People would be so shocked if you didn't know who he was, if you were a Brit. They would be like, Where have you been? Under a rock?

Speaker2:
Yeah, exactly. No, he's great. So what's he up to in the afternoon, then? So he has a recording session. He's done that. Does he do any exercise? Do you think he might do some light exercise?

Speaker1:
I think he probably goes for a walk. A very short walk with I mean, I know I've got sausage dogs, but I feel like he might have a sausage dog.

Speaker2:
A sausage dog.

Speaker1:
Is that weird? Okay. Does he want a sausage dog?

Speaker2:
I think. Why not? I mean sausage dogs don't go on long walks, do they? And at the age of 97, he's probably not going to be going on long. I don't know. I don't want to be kind of limiting this guy, but that is seriously, seriously old.

Speaker1:
He does go on talk shows still. I saw him on, um, the Jonathan Ross show fairly recently, I think. Or maybe that was a repeat, but still he looked quite old then.

Speaker2:
Did he walk there?

Speaker1:
Hahahahaha no, I'm just meaning that he gets out and about.

Speaker2:
Yeah. No, no doubt about that. He's so active isn't it?

Speaker1:
Yeah. A little sausage dog maybe going for a walk with his sausage dog down to the village in Hampstead and he's got a flat cap on?

Speaker2:
Yeah. Because he's going to get recognised so much isn't he? [Yeah] So you want to hide your .. maybe he wears a mask.

Speaker1:
Imagine if he wore a mask of another famous person, just to get a break because he's that famous.

Speaker2:
David Beckham.

Speaker1:
Or Gervais. That'd be hilarious to go past Ricky Gervais's house wearing a face mask just to try and get a break.

Speaker2:
Maybe he does that just to kind of he's a wind-up he's an absolute wind-up merchant. [Yeah] He likes to take the Mickey out of his neighbours. So that's his daily routine is he has like a room full of different masks of different famous people's faces. And he thinks, okay, which 1 am I going to wear today?

Speaker1:
Yeah. And then he goes past them waving as he goes past their drive and they're on the balcony cackling because. Oh, David. There's David up to his old tricks. He's 97. If he's careful, he'll die in my mask if he's not careful. Sorry.

Speaker2:
Oh, my God. Ricky Gervais is dead. Oh, no. It's David Attenborough.

Speaker1:
Please be careful, David. Okay, so he's gone on his walk. Maybe he goes to the newsagent's on the way back. Maybe he's got a habit of still doing the lottery because his generation did that non-stop, didn't they?

Speaker2:
Wait, if you're you're 97 and mega-rich, would you bother wasting the precious time that you have left to buy a lottery ticket? Or are you saying it's just out of habit?

Speaker1:
It's out of habit because, you know, my parents' generation kind of do it and yours. They go into the lottery. I think that's crazy to do a lottery. I think that's kind of signing away your own power to kind of become rich yourself by doing hopefully well in your work. I think to to have to go every week and say one day I'll be the winner. I think that's I think we've been taught, you know, make money for yourself. You can do it. It's a possibility. But but their generation were probably like, again, I'm stereotyping the class-based system but like their generation is probably like, well, I could only get mega rich if I won the lottery and maybe that habit started in his childhood. His parents did it. He does it. He's got his set numbers that he wants to desperately win with before he dies. That will really give him a kick. Sure, he'll give it to WWF, not the Wrestling Federation.

Speaker2:
Yeah, the wildlife charity. WWf World Wildlife Fund. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably what he would do. Yeah. It's just out of habit. And his numbers, they would be like the birthdays of his all of his pets. [Yeah] So he's.

Speaker1:
That's a long number. Probably because of all the pets.

Speaker2:
Because. Because he hasn't seen his kids for a long time.

Speaker1:
Does he have family?

Speaker2:
No. Oh I think so. No. He has a he probably has a great relationship with his kids. [Yeah] He'd be a lovely dad. Wouldn't he? He'd be a lovely dad.

Speaker1:
Yes. He's got Robert and Susan. Yes. Who are probably, you know, pensioners. Right? [Yeah. Yeah] Goodness me. Yeah. Robert probably. Robert looks as old as David.

Speaker2:
Imagine that.

Speaker1:
Wow.

Speaker2:
Oh, my God. Imagine going out for a coffee or you're meeting your dad for lunch, and then you're confused as your dad's brother.

Speaker1:
Or they ask you for your autograph. David? [Yeah. Oh, God] No that's my dad.

Speaker2:
You're looking very youthful today, David. My dad's 97. I'm not David.

Speaker1:
He's sat with Gervais, though, isn't he? With the mask on. [Yeah] Right. I'm aware that I've kept you too long. We'll have to leave it there. We'll leave the evening routine of JK Rowling bowling. I always think of how to pronounce her name. It's like bowling.

Speaker2:
Rowling?

Speaker1:
No, it's bold. It's rolling. Yeah. They say it wrong in America. Yeah. J.k. Rowling. Like tenpin bowling. I think they say it.

Speaker2:
Sorry. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that. They also say it wrongly here.

Speaker1:
Okay. Yes, but you said it in an American accent then. Rowling. [Rowling] Okay.

Speaker2:
I've never said I've never heard JK Rowling. Okay. Anyway, yeah. Good author. I wonder. Yeah. She just spends the whole day writing, I imagine.

Speaker1:
Yeah. But then the evening probably on Twitter regretting her tweets about, you know what..

Speaker2:
Writing on Twitter. Yeah, writing and reading all day, baby.

Speaker1:
Okay, well, we will leave it there. Thank you very much, Harry. I appreciate your time, as always. And well done, listeners, for getting to the end of this particularly messy but hopefully fun journey.

Speaker2:
I hope so. Yeah. I hope you enjoyed the mess, guys. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker1:
It's good listening practice because we went all over the place, didn't we?

Speaker2:
And lots of cultural references that people should look up. These people like Johnny Vegas, Ricky Gervais, David Attenborough. These are, these are legends.

Speaker1:
PG Tips. Also a legend. No, not.

Speaker2:
Absolute legend in the making arena.

Speaker1:
Yeah, Yeah. And all the brands that we mentioned, I'll be putting them in the flashcards for everyone who has signed up to the premium or academy memberships. But we'll leave it there. Thank you very much, Harry. And we'll see you guys next week on the British English podcast. Bye-bye, Harry.

Speaker2:
Bye bye.

Speaker3:
There we go. The end of part three, meaning the end of the episode. Well done for getting through the entirety of it. Make sure you use all of the resources available to you in your membership. Thanks once again for supporting the show and I look forward to seeing you next time on the British English Podcast.

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