Transcript of Premium Bonus 068- Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to the British English Podcast. On today's episode, we have my father with us today, and we've already done an episode with my mother, and it was about the mother and son relationship. And we went through what she thought of me as a child, and I thought it would be good to get a second opinion to see if this correlates with my father's opinion. So yeah, let's get straight into it. Um, this this one is a bit more impromptu, so my father hasn't had time to think about it, but we'll see how he fares. Um. Hello, father. How are you?

Charlie's Father:
Hello, son. How are you? I don't call Charlie son. I call him Charlie.

Charlie:
You call me Charlie. Well, this is where we started with, um, my mother's episode. I was Referring to her as mother, as I often say father to you. And this is to avoid what personally, what do I avoid?

Charlie's Father:
Like saying daddy and mummy? Yes.

Charlie:
Yes, exactly. And mummy was more insistent on me saying mummy. You would occasionally let me say dad in front of some friends.

Charlie's Father:
In front of a few friends. Yes, I can understand that teenagers in particularly rather get like to get away from daddy. I think I remember trying to get away from saying daddy in front of my teenage friends, but I remember actually going back to daddy eventually. And actually I always called him daddy after that.

Charlie:
Right, okay. But then so you had that moment, but you you still felt like you should inflict me with the daddy rule.

Charlie's Father:
I don't really mind. Actually, I quite like being called father. It's fine. I can see the joke in it, in a sense. Um, but yeah you would call me daddy at times. Yeah, father, other times is perfectly okay.

Charlie:
Well, I remember I used to find it tricky to. When I would ring home in front of my friends at school, I'd ring to see if you or mummy were at home and Holly or Laura would pick up, and I would have to say, Is mummy there? So I'd often say, is anyone else at home? Or just try to avoid that word at, um in any way I could. But yeah. So, um, we're here to talk about our relationship. Your opinion of me. Um, I've got some questions that will go through, but, um, before we do, um, how's your morning? Been looking so far?

Charlie's Father:
My morning. Well, I'm retired now, so the wonderful thing is that I don't always have any great pressure to get up really early. Now, the one time I do get up early is when I'm playing golf early, so. And that's usually a Monday. Okay. Um, but the other day of the week when I usually play golf, which is a Friday I've purposely arranged that I don't tee off until after 10:00.

Charlie:
Aha. Okay.

Charlie's Father:
And other days of the week I might be going to the gym at 9 a.m. I going at ten? But I certainly don't try to go at 7:00 in the morning.

Charlie:
Yeah. And do you really enjoy being retired?

Charlie's Father:
I do, I love it. I love the fact that I don't have to go in and and deal with somebody else's schedule. I have my own schedule and I'm busy. But that schedule is created by me rather than by somebody else. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
So you still feel like you have a purpose in life?

Charlie's Father:
Yes. When people ask me what I do in my retirement, I say the three G's. The three G's are golf, grandpa. And golf. Golf. Golf and golf. Golf. Grandparenting and garden.

Speaker3:
Are the three G's.

Charlie's Father:
And I like to add in occasionally a third G, which is gin and tonic.

Speaker3:
A fourth G.

Charlie's Father:
A fourth G. Yes, yes. I'm a good math teacher, aren't I? Yes. Reminds me a little bit of the Monty Python, um, the Spanish Inquisition, which I don't know whether you know about that, but there's a wonderful skit in Monty Python where the clerics from, dressed in their red and purple robes, jump into the room and say, we are the Spanish Inquisition. Inquisition. And there are two main reasons for us being here. Number one is this, that and the other. Number two, this, that and the other. Number three. Oh no. There are three main reasons. They go out and come in again and say, there are three reasons why we are here. Number one so-and-so, number two so-and-so, number three so-and-so, number four. So no there are four main reasons for us being here. And so he goes on.

Charlie:
Well, at least they were aware of being wrong. But yeah, the three G's, but also a gin and tonic. A gin and tonic. Do you have gin and tonic much?

Charlie's Father:
Not very much now. Sometimes at the club when I'm there. But.

Charlie:
Oh, really? Okay.

Charlie's Father:
I don't often have it here at home. Okay.

Charlie:
Yeah. You should bond over gin and tonic with Stacey. She loves gin and tonic.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah, right. Lovely. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie:
Okay. Are you ready for the first question?

Charlie's Father:
The first question for my starter for ten. Is it?

Charlie:
Uh, there's three questions in the form of 15 questions. Yeah. So the first one is, did I cry a lot when I was a baby? And are there any particular reasons or funny stories behind my tears?

Charlie's Father:
um, I find it quite hard to think back to when you were a child that I have images. Um, I seem to remember mummy saying yesterday. Oh, yes, you used to cry quite a lot in the car.

Charlie:
Um, yeah.

Charlie's Father:
Yes, I sort of vaguely remember that. Um, but I would never have said you were a child. That blubbered an awful lot.

Charlie:
Okay. Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
Blubbed meaning crying, of course. Yeah. Um.

Charlie:
Is this your word or a word?

Charlie's Father:
No, it's an English word. Yeah. Blubbed.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay.

Charlie's Father:
Um, but no, I don't I don't remember you crying a lot. Okay. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay. In comparison to my sisters, was there much difference, or were you. Were we.

Charlie's Father:
I don't remember you all crying a lot. I mean, my images of small children nowadays are my grandchildren. Yeah. So, you know, I can see them crying at times and playing up, but I partly because when I was young, when you were tinies and I was working a lot, so therefore I probably wasn't at in some ways, I wasn't at home as much except during the holidays. Yes, and maybe a little bit on the weekends. But in teaching my form of teaching, I was actually quite busy on the weekends as well. Mhm.

Charlie:
So, so it's a bit like the um what is the metaphor or the, the, the saying if a, if a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody to hear it, does it make a sound.

Charlie's Father:
Yes. I suppose you could say that. Yes. If a.

Charlie:
Baby cries and the father's not around.

Charlie's Father:
He's not crying.

Charlie:
In the father's eyes.

Charlie's Father:
Yes.

Charlie:
But the mother's mother is pulling her hair out. Uh, okay. So you were very busy with work. And what is your work?

Charlie's Father:
I was a teacher.

Charlie:
Was. Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
And, um, when I say I was, yes, I do still teach, but I teach on a 1 to 1 basis, so I tutor. Yeah. But my teaching career, which went on for 46 years. 46 years of teaching. And during that time I taught mainly science. Although inevitably you have to teach other things at times. But I was a deputy head and then I became a head. And then after my headship, I got out of that and went back into the staff room, effectively as an assistant teacher.

Charlie:
Why did you leave your headship?

Charlie's Father:
I headship, I left because the when I'd been employed by the governors of the school I went to, they implied that things were financially difficult. But when I got to being employed there, I realised that there were far more than difficult. They were bankrupt, and I can see that I was being effectively made a scapegoat. I felt, um, and they weren't really listening to me about what we needed to do to get out of the problem. Um, I created five year plans and so forth and so on, and I think they thought, oh, I a new teacher head teacher coming in would sort it all out in a year or two, but they couldn't quite see that actually growing a school from that situation was going to take at least five years, right? And I just eventually got very fed up with the governors and told them to keep their job, and I would, I went away.

Charlie:
All right. Okay. So it's quite political.

Charlie's Father:
Political. I don't know whether I would use that word. It was.

Charlie:
Well, they were using you as a scapegoat.

Charlie's Father:
I felt they were using me as a scapegoat, but they probably wouldn't see it that way. But I don't, because they wanted. They realised they'd got to a point where the school needed actually to be sold. Mhm. And I thought, well, I shouldn't have been employed in a situation where they knew that the financial situation was so bad that, uh, that needed to be sold. They should have sorted that out before employing me. Right.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay. Okay. So then you went back to teaching? Um, in the classroom, went back into the staff room, as you said. Um, and you stayed there for ten, 20, 20 years.

Charlie's father:
Um 20. 25 years. Yeah. About 25 years, I guess, because I spent the last school I was at. I was at the I was at it for 23 years, but I'd done a couple of other years in between in 1 or 2 other schools temporarily. Yeah. Between leaving the headship and then getting the job in my last school.

Charlie:
Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Okay. So that was your profession. That was your that was your career. Yeah. Um back to me being a kid though. What was the relevance there was that you were very busy doing all of that whilst we were growing up. Um, but do you remember anything particularly silly that I ever got upset about as a kid?

Charlie's father:
Yes, I. Do remember one thing, actually. Okay. Yeah, I remember you came back from school one day quite upset that other children were teasing you about the size of your feet.

Charlie:
Oh, for God's sake. This came up as well.

Charlie's father:
Yeah. And I. And I said to you, right? Well, if people are having making fun of your feet.

Charlie:
And you've got massive feet, well, well, I've got big feet. Oh, yeah.

Charlie's father:
Um, then why don't you just join in the laughter with them?

Charlie:
Yeah. I remember this lesson you taught me. Yeah.

Charlie's father:
And you came back a few days later and home, and you said to me quite proudly, daddy. I laughed with them when they talked about my feet and so forth and so on, and it was much better. And you were so pleased with yourself that you had got over your problem. And I was pleased to. Yeah.

Charlie:
So that's probably the first realisation of self-deprecation.

Charlie's father:
I suppose so, yes.

Charlie:
Welcome to the world of British humour. Mm. 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. Nice. Okay. Yeah, I do actually remember that. Um, although I was very four, was I four years old?

Charlie's father:
No, I said you were old because you were at the Raleigh at that stage, so you would have been seven ish.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
I think I do remember that. Um, can you remember any funny or odd habits I had.

Charlie's father:
When you were younger, when you were very young? You know, a 2 or 3, I suppose. You used to have a little toy which you you. It was your cuddly, shall we say. Right. Your comforter, I think, is the correct term. Okay. It's not a dummy. It was, but it was a soft toy, which you, um. What was it called? It was called ruffles or something like that.

Charlie:
Oh, Scruffles

Charlie's father:
That's right.

Charlie:
Yes, I remember Scruffles.

Charlie's father:
And you carried scuffles around with you everywhere.

Speaker3:
Yes I. Did.

Charlie's father:
Yeah. And I think we eventually prised you away from scuffles.

Charlie:
But it was a little dog.

Charlie's father:
It was a little dog. Yeah. By, by giving you something else or making you realise that actually you were a big boy now and you didn't need scuffles. But. Yeah, but I was the same when I was young. I had a little rag, which I called a Suki. Okay. Which I carried around with me and, uh. And if you remember, your elder sister Holly had a little fluffy thing, which she.

Charlie:
Oh, yeah. I mean, she still has those kind. Of things, isn't she? Y

Charlie's father:
yes.

Charlie:
And she used to collect them. She used to have these little fluffy, almost keyring sized toys. Yeah. That were she. Would she stroke them against her?

Charlie's father:
Yeah, I think so. Yes, I think she'd. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Charlie:
But yeah. So you had a rag.

Charlie's father:
So I had a rag. Um, and I think a lot of young children have something like that as a comforter. Yeah. And eventually you get to the point where, okay, you're old enough to dispense with it. Yeah.

Charlie:
Did you get nervous about the idea of me not letting go of it, ever?

Charlie's father:
No, no. I'm quite content, I think. Children will always grow out of these things. So. Yeah, it could. It'll happen.

Charlie:
Okay. Yeah. Uh, did I get myself into, um. Any mess? An amusing mess when I was younger. A pickle?

Charlie's father:
I, I can't think of things immediately. When you were very much younger. Yeah. I can think of things that happened when you were in your teenage years.

Charlie:
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie's father:
Um. And I think even possibly early, early teenage, maybe when you were younger and I used to take you on the ski trips that I ran from the school I last taught at, which I did that for ten years. And so you used to come with me and. And all the other children? Of course. Yeah.

Charlie:
From your school. And I wasn't at that school,

Charlie's father:
But I was able to throw you in there. Yeah. And you quite enjoyed it, because you got to meet lots of other children and 1 or 2 of them you came quite friendly with. Yeah. Um, anyway, so, yeah, one of the first things I remember is we staff used to have a meal on the last day while you children were all, um, doing some free skiing with other parents and things like that, because we used to take parents of the children as well on the trip. And I got a phone call to say, oh, Charlie's had an accident. And if you remember this, you had come down in front of the group that you were with and a ski instructor bumped into you.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie's father:
Knocked you over? Yeah. And hurt your knee. And you were carted off by the what we call the the blood wagon, which actually was just a stretcher between two instructors and taken down to the first aid hospital. And so we rushed over there to to find you. In fact, you ended up okay. But I think it was, you know, it was pretty a bit, um, a bit worrying, put it that way especially.

Charlie:
Yeah. You were worried.

Charlie's father:
I was worried, yeah.

Charlie:
Were you worried because you had taken me skiing and it was your responsibility to be the parent? Were you worried about, like, what it would look like in front of your wife or not at all? It was just about your son.

Charlie's father:
No. I was more worried about you and your your knee. Because, of course, I had knee problems I'd had when I was younger, when I was my 20s, young 20s, in fact, I'd had a knee, an accident, and I'd lost a cruciate ligament. Yeah. And that caused me perpetual problems for the rest of my life.

Charlie:
So you were worried.

Charlie's father:
So I was worried that you would have those sort of injuries. Yeah. Which at that stage you didn't have. No. But of course, later in your life you did get into a pickle with that sort of thing.

Charlie:
Yes.

Charlie:
Um, interesting that you said bumped into. I think it's, um, from retelling the story I've always gone to the more exaggerated like crashed into.

Charlie:
Smashed into. Yeah. Bulldozed over.

Charlie's father:
Yeah well, I was trying to be kind to the person who. Who crashed into you, bumped into you, or wiped you out or whatever you like to say, you know?

Speaker3:
But, yeah, it's probably it's always.

Charlie's father:
Somebody else's fault on the. Slopes. Yeah.

Charlie:
Always. Yeah. Um, okay, so I injured myself a few times. I also bumped my head quite a lot, didn't I? I cracked my.

Charlie's father:
Oh, yes. You were very good at bumping your head. Yeah. There situation. I can still see it now, actually. Now you mention it. Um, I was standing in the front door. You were standing on a little bit of a raised edge in the garden, and you leaned forward, and you could have been, what, for maybe 4 or 5. Um. And he leaned forward, and I think he slipped down. And you cracked your head on the edge of the car?

Charlie:
Oh. I don't remember that one.

Charlie's father:
Yeah, And and so you had a gash on your forehead.

Charlie:
Was it the front bit?

Charlie's father:
Yeah, I think so. Because that's. Yeah.

Charlie:
That's a scar that I actually don't remember.

Charlie's father:
Yeah. That was, that's that one. And then another one was upstairs when our previous house and you fell over in the upstairs corridor and you bashed your head on the edge of the, um, the skirting board?

Charlie:
Yes, yes. And that.

Charlie's father:
That was at the back of your head. I think that.

Charlie:
Was the back of my head. Yeah. I've got a bald patch there still. And that was from. Do you remember what that was from? I remember that one very clearly.

Charlie's father:
What caused the what caused you to fall over? I don't remember.

Charlie:
It was because I had just got my first PE kit for the Raleigh, and I was trying it on, and I was running around the house and mummy was ready for me to go to bed. So she said, you need to take it off now. And I was determined to keep it on and I was running around, so she pulled them down, the shorts down, and then I was still sillily moving around and then I fell back. Yeah. So yeah, excited to wear my PE kit. Um, okay. We're now moving into family traditions and quirks. Is there a family tradition you can think of that often makes us, like, recite or we remember it? Um, when we're together?

Charlie's father:
I think there are little sayings more than anything else. Yeah. Um, I think because sometimes mummy and I remember things from when we were, you know, single maybe, or maybe on a holiday and we tell you about them and they sort of become part of the family tradition. So, for example, um, we went on a holiday that, um, Elizabeth and I went on holiday before we had any of the children to somewhere in Tenerife. Um, and it was a self-catering apartment, but I think they delivered bread each day, and we were wondering where on earth the bread was. And so I opened the front door and looked out. Can't see any bread out here. And tried to close the door, but the door was getting jammed on something I looked down and the bread, which was his long stick, was jammed in the door. As I was trying to close it.

Charlie:
Where were you looking? Were you looking on the horizon?

Charlie's father:
I don't know.

Charlie:
Can't see any. Bread out there.

Charlie's Father:
Bread here. Bang bang bang. So we had crushed loaves of bread for breakfast. So. Yeah. So I think it sort of.

Charlie:
How did that.

Charlie's Father:
Translated into, you know, where's the bread? Or, um, you know, we're looking for things and you can't find it because you're all looking around everywhere except the place where it is. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh, yes. Another one, which is always quite amusing is because as I got older, I got stiffer in my neck. And I used to face in the dining room, I used to face into the house. Whereas you were always either. Well, mummy was facing out into the garden and you children were obviously on the sides of the table so you could see what's out in the garden, but I couldn't.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
And then one day somebody said, oh, look, there's the fox. And of course, me being a bit slow to turn round. I would turn round very slowly in 30 minutes. Yeah. And by the time I turned round. Yes. That's right. By the time I turned round slowly, there was no fox. Yeah. So I was, you know, where's the fox? So that became. It always becomes a bit of a tradition when people are saying, you know, look, look at that, daddy. It's. What is that? And I say, where's the fox? Or you would say, where's the fox?

Charlie:
Yeah it did take you an age to turn around. But I, I occasionally notice behaviours that I'm now doing that remind me of you. Oh yes. And I think that one day that will, will come one day and I'll no.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah well, I, I recognise mannerisms that I have that are either my mother's or my father's. Definitely.

Charlie:
Do you think you take after one of them? More so than the other?

Charlie's Father:
No. Well, there's there's one which all the Baxters, you know, my sisters and I definitely do. Which mummy used to do. And that was when you're saying goodbye to people in the drive in the driveway. Suppose you're walking down the drive and you're going to your car, and you turn around back to the house and and wave goodbye. My, the way my mother did it was almost is almost exactly the same way as I do it. My sisters do it. How do you do it? And it's a sort of. It's a sort of turning round and wide like that.

Charlie:
And yes, yes, yes.

Charlie's Father:
We do it. We all do it exactly the same way. In fact, I think other Schofield families and my mother was.

Charlie:
Feminine.

Charlie's Father:
Sort of. Maybe. Yes. But it's, um, it's. Yeah, it's just the way we did it.

Charlie:
And then you and you walk in and then you're like, that was just like my mum.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah, yeah and then sometimes, sometimes I suppose it's more in, in the way maybe I, the way I speak sometimes or I don't know that I think of my dad, you know. But. Right. I try to be different. I've always tried to be different to my dad in terms of how I've dealt with the children. That was one thing I learned as a youngster. I always felt that he would say, no, you can't do that. You know you can't play with the ball there. And I always think to myself, I can't do this. I can't do that. Well, what can I do? So as a father bringing you up, if I was to, if you were doing something which I didn't want you to do in a certain place, I didn't want you to do it. I would always start by saying, why don't you go and play that over there? You know, because over here you might break a window or something like that. So I always wanted to try and I did it with my own teaching career. I always felt that you didn't say no straight away. You said, yes, you can do that. But over there not not here.

Charlie:
Mhm. Right.

Charlie's Father:
So put a positive spin on it rather than a negative spin Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. Find a solution to the. No, you can't do that. I feel like that. That was true. Yeah. I never came away from memory. I don't reflect on it thinking. You always told me no. So that probably means. Exactly. You achieved your aim. So your your pain in your childhood was my gain.

Charlie's Father:
Your. Yeah. My pain was your gain.

Charlie:
So thank you for having that pain.

Speaker1:
We have come to the end of part two now. So again, feel free to pause the episode, to 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. And we'll do one more in family traditions. Is there a funny holiday mishap that you can remember that happened for us?

Charlie's Father:
I don't know whether you can even remember. There are two really, really glaring ones, I think when we're on. No. Three. Sorry. Spanish Inquisition again. Um, first one, I think, which is always amuses you because I always I've always liked doing karaoke when

Charlie:
This came up. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
Um, and we were sitting by a pool. We were, I think, in Gran Canaria, if I remember rightly. And there was a karaoke session going on by the pool. And I think you and mummy and Holly, I'm not sure Laura was there on that holiday and you'd gone off somewhere and I thought, right, well, now's my chance to do a bit of karaoke.

Charlie:
Oh, so you wanted to always do karaoke, but you felt like you couldn't because you were.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah. You wouldn't like it.

Charlie:
Ah,

Charlie's Father:
Because I love the idea of singing, but I know I'm not a great singer.

Charlie:
Okay,

Charlie's Father:
But I'd love to be a better singer. I sort of know the sort of things that I can sing.

Charlie:
Okay. Hang on. So you know this, and yet you think the the best way to learn how to do this is to do it in front of other tourists who are trying to relax?

Charlie's Father:
Yeah, other people doing it and getting it wrong. So why not, you know, get out there and try and do it wrong. Karaoke is a laugh. It really is.

Charlie:
I'd say it's meant to be for those who can sing.

Charlie's Father:
No, I think it's meant to be for anybody. It's supposed to be for anyone. The whole point of that is.

Charlie:
True. Yeah. I'm wrong.

Charlie's Father:
It's supposed to be, I think, a fun thing to do, but it's.

Charlie:
Torturous to hear somebody.

Charlie's Father:
To listen to other people. And it's funny though. It's also funny.

Charlie:
It's funny for five seconds and then you've got three minutes of it.

Charlie's Father:
Yes. Well, just think what it's like for the singer. Yeah. Because I asked him to play American Pie. Because one of my favourites that my best friend Chaz.

Charlie:
My my American pie.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah. Bye bye, American pie.

Charlie's Father:
Bye bye bye. Just as well you won't sing it.

Charlie:
Yeah. My, my. Give me the pie.

Charlie's Father:
You were thinking. My my my. Delilah.

Charlie:
Oh, I think I.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah, you were thinking of Delilah. Yeah. Which is another good song for karaoke as well. But a mass of people needs to sing Delilah. Anyway. American pie. Yeah. Again, you get a mass of people singing American Pie. That's good. Anyway, this particular version that came up wasn't quite the version I was expecting.

Charlie:
was it a different song?

Charlie's Father:
No. It was. It was the same song. But perhaps in some reason, in my mind, I. The tune was you.

Charlie:
Were Thinking of Delilah.

Charlie's Father:
Maybe I was thinking of Delilah I didn't kill the man with a with a with a knife and didn't stab him anyway. So I was singing this away terribly badly. Probably, yes. Okay.

Charlie:
And I'm glad you're aware.

Charlie's Father:
They probably did it in the wrong key or something for me. You know, I'm very specific about the key. I wanted it to be in E minor. Yeah, yeah. And at that, halfway through it, I noticed you and mummy come back in and you heard me, and you were obviously totally embarrassed by the fact that I was singing away and getting it wrong. And you, you went down some steps and sort of hid halfway down those steps trying not to be associated with me. And eventually I finished and maybe a bit of applause, but maybe not. I can't remember.

Charlie:
Boooo.

Charlie's Father:
But they were all the other people around the pool hadn't dived into the pool to get away with me, but they were all gracious enough to give me a bit of applause.

Charlie:
More willing to stick around than we were.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah anyway, there was that, and I've done karaoke on skiing holidays and things like that. Which 1 or 2 other friends who are who I still see nowadays always remember as well.

Charlie:
I'm sure they do. can't get that out of your brain.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Um, I was thinking of G1 Holiday.

Charlie's Father:
In.. Oh, yes. I think you're thinking then of the time we went on holiday and we thought we had reserved a particular, um, resort. And we got to the resort actually quite late at night.

Charlie:
Very late. It was midnight.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. The flight was delayed. The car booking took ages and then we got a bit lost. And then we got to the hotel.

Charlie's Father:
We got to the hotel anyway, so we couldn't get in because there was nobody on the reception. Yeah. So we slept in the car overnight, and Holly was crying. And you went and slept on a bench? Yeah. Anyway, we got through to the next morning, went in the reception and they said, no, we haven't got a booking for you. Oh, God. And they said, are you cancelled it? And I said, there's no way I cancelled it.

Charlie:
However, 20 years on, any reflections on actually cancelling it?

Charlie's Father:
No no no no.

Charlie's Father:
There may be there. I do sort of vaguely remember getting, um, communication from them, but no way I would have cancelled it.

Charlie:
Right.

Charlie's Father:
Anyway, so they then said, oh yes, well, we'll. Okay. We found something for you and then sent us off to this, uh, apartment, so-called. And we looked at it as soon as we looked at it, it was like a dungeon.

Charlie:
Yeah, it really was.

Charlie's Father:
And it stank. It was mouldy and wet and horrible. And it literally did look like a dungeon, because to open it, open it up, you had to open up a grill door.

Charlie:
Mhm.

Charlie's Father:
And we went back to the reception said absolutely no way. We're not having that.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Because we had two weeks all for I don't know if Laura was there.

Charlie's Father:
Well, I think we had that apartment for. We were due on that resort for one week. And another resort?

Charlie:
Oh, yeah. For another.

Charlie's Father:
Week. Yeah. So we said absolutely not taking that. And you've got to find a better accommodation than that. And they said, well there's nothing on this resort. And I said, but you've got a sister resort. And they said, oh no. I said, I know you've got a sister resort.

Charlie:
And I like this about you.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
A while they were trying to go to the sister resort. They said, well, we can have some breakfast. So we went and had some breakfast and mummy ordered an egg and she picked up the salt cellar. Do you remember this?

Charlie:
Yes, yes.

Charlie's Father:
She picked up the salt cellar. Unfortunately, she didn't realise was the salt cellar cap wasn't on properly. So when she tipped it up the lid came off and all the salt came out on her egg.

Charlie:
Yes.

Charlie:
And she's also quite particular about her eggs and the consistency of a poached egg.

Charlie's Father:
must be runny.

Charlie:
Yes. And so the salts took ages to get off. She opened it and it was really dry, and she was like, oh no.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah. So that capped it all for that morning. Yeah. Anyway, we went back to reception and I did eventually find us a resort. And actually it was a very nice resort. Very nice resort. And right next to a golf course, which we played. Um, that being Tenerife or Gran Canaria or whatever it was. No, it was Tenerife, wasn't it? Um, no, no it wasn't, it was. It was Costa del Sol.

Charlie:
That hole. Yes. Yeah. Costa Catala golf club.

Charlie's Father:
No, it wasn't that. It was. It was another one for near La Isla. But it wasn't that one. Anyway, um, that resort was lovely. We had a smallish apartment. Our bedroom had, um, air conditioning, but I don't think the rest of it did. So, um, it was a bit hot that week, if I remember rightly, because we were in August, whenever it was.

Charlie:
Yeah. I mean, we asked for it. We went to the sun.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that was an amusing bit of holiday, which we always remember. And of course, the other thing is when we were on holiday and I think this was in Tenerife, and one evening we decided to go out and find something to eat.

Charlie:
Oh yeah.

Charlie's Father:
We walked down the, down the road and, and the time was pushing on and yeah, restaurants don't stay open that late. And we got to the first restaurant. Somebody decided they didn't want that food. Holly. Probably. Yeah. And so we moved on down the street to another one, and somebody in the group didn't want that one. And then we moved on down to the. Yes. And probably you at the next one, and probably mummy at the next one. I'm very versatile in what you eat. I couldn't care less.

Charlie:
We used to call you, um, trash. Trash can. Trash dustbin. Dustbin. Nigel.

Charlie's Father:
Well, I, I grew up going to boarding school, so I eat anything. Yeah. Yeah. Um.

Charlie:
And I respect that. I like that in somebody. Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
So I'm not fussy really at all. I'm not great on fish, but, you know, hey, if you're on a holiday, you know, you want some food.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
Anyway, so after probably three quarters of an hour of straight up and down the string and thinking the restaurants are just about to close, so we end up back at the first one and went in there and probably.

Charlie:
Had a margarita pizza or something.

Charlie's Father:
Probably had a margarita pizza. It probably was what we had eventually. Yeah.

Charlie:
Oh, dear. Yes. That, that that G1 prison cell kind of, um, holiday was the the one I remember sleeping on that bench was a particular moment of, um, like, oh, are we going to be, like, homeless for two weeks? Yeah. But yeah. Um, cool. Well, we kind of got to leave it there, but I suppose I just wanted to reflect on your opinion of my general personality characteristic as a as a boy. Would you care to reflect on that for me?

Charlie's Father:
I think I think I've been, um. Fascinated to see how you've changed from being a very small child. You've always been interested in sport, which is lovely as far as I'm concerned, because I'm always interested in sport, you know. And you've done your cricket and I've taught you cricket and you've been a footballer, and I've taught you football. I've been coaching for you that you never got into rugby, which I would have probably quite liked because I like rugby more than I like football.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah, sorry, but this. is your wife's fault because I was malnourished. Yeah. So I was never a threat on the rugby field.

Charlie's Father:
No yeah, but anybody I played it so you could play. You could have...

Charlie:
No you had your height.

Charlie's Father:
Yeah, maybe. But you could get steamrollered if you didn't have the weight. I agree, but I played it at school anyway. Um, but we played squash together. We played tennis together. Um, ping pong, you know, badminton and not badminton. Oh, we'd have played badminton in the garden.

Charlie:
Table tennis. Table tennis. We used to love playing table tennis. That was so fun. And having basketball.

Charlie's Father:
And basketball. Yeah, I used to love that. Yeah. So we played a lot of sports together. And when we eventually got into golf together and that I loved, I loved being able to play golf with you. Because with golf, you can, however good you are, you can play on a level par with somebody else.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah. So somebody of my calibre can even play with somebody of..

Charlie's Father:
My immense calibre.

Charlie:
Yeah. Oh yeah.

Charlie's Father:
Which is totally the other way round now, because you can hit it five times further than I can. Um, but one of the, one of the little stories I always remember about golf, because I used to take you down to the golf club, which was close by, and I'd leave you there the whole day. It was so safe. It was wonderful. But. And you learnt a fabulous swing from the young pros that were down there in those days. But also what they taught you was good manners on the golf course and everything like that. And I remember I sang to you on stage after you've been a member for a few years, and I said, why don't you bring some of your friends down to play with you? And your reply was, I'm not sure that they would know how to behave. Ha ha.

Charlie:
Ha. Oh my God, I was a snob even then. I didn't know I said that I don't recall that.

But perhaps the exact words but that that was the basic gist of what you said, which was great. I felt that you appreciated that there was a way that one behaved, especially in a golf course, you know, and the way you dressed and everything like that. So it meant you had learned quite a lot. Yeah. And and I don't think that's being a snob. I think that's being realistic about how one should behave in certain circumstances.

Charlie:
Okay. Yeah nice save, nice save. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think that paints a picture of what I was like as a child.

Charlie:
Yeah Yeah brilliant. Well, thank you very much, father, for this conversation. It was good fun.

Charlie's Father:
It was good was good fun.

Charlie:
Yeah. Look forward to doing more with. You. Yeah.

Charlie's Father:
Why not? Let's do some more.

Charlie:
Cool. Okay. Well, thank you very much, guys, for listening to the end of this. Well done. And see you next time on the British English Podcast. Bye bye, father.

Charlie's Father:
Bye bye, son.

Charlie:
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.