"They look like elf legs!" Good morning, good afternoon,
and good evening! Welcome to a slightly different video on Smashing English. So,
you are going to spend a day with us. We are going to take you everywhere we go today,
talk to the camera, tell you what we're doing so that you can spend a whole day with us,
and hopefully, learn some everyday English things that are really common—things that we say all the
time. We'll give you new vocabulary; we'll give you the definitions on the screen. So hopefully,
you should enjoy the video. It's going to be quite a nice video, I think, and also learn
some English along the way. So, let's go back in time to this morning when I just woke up. Enjoy!
Good morning! Morning, everybody! It's half past 7. In Britain, I would say half 7. In the US,
people would say 7:30, but I'm in Britain, so I'm going to say half 7. It's half 7 in the
morning. This is the time I normally wake up. It's very cold, which is why I'm in this huge,
huge—I don't know what I'd call it. Probably like an oodie. I think the brand name is an oodie,
and it's like a huge hoodie that you can wear, and it's thick, and it's really good
for the cold mornings. So, good morning. I'm going to go and have my breakfast.
I'm going to have my breakfast. Remember, a lot of languages say "to take your breakfast," "to
take my coffee." We don't say that in English. We say "have my breakfast," "have my coffee." So
come with me, spend the day with me, and we're going to have some fun. Yay! And like I said,
it's freezing this morning, so I'm going to go put the heating on. Put the heating on! Oh,
there's frost outside and everything. There's frost on the grass. Oh, it's clearly a cold day.
And we have got—I'm just putting the heating on the thermostat just to get the house warm
because it's freezing. It's freezing. And we've currently got our Christmas decorations ready
to go up because today we're decorating for Christmas. So they're ready to go.
What do I need to do in the morning? Oh yeah, I need to put the kettle on. First point of order:
put the kettle on, make a coffee, have some breakfast, watch the news,
have a shower. That's my morning. Oh, I need to open the curtains because look,
it looks a bit closed off from the world. We need to open the curtains,
welcome the day in, say, "Hello day. I'm ready for you." Open the curtains, open the blinds,
double protection from the world here. So we put the kettle on to boil the water.
Okay, so I'm putting the kettle on. This is going to be fun. I'm looking forward to having you,
following my day. This is going to be nice. My plan for today: I need to do all the things for
the morning, then I need to start teaching. I'm teaching all day today. I'm an English teacher.
That's my job. So, I'm teaching from 9 till 12. You can hear the kettle boiling in the background.
That's nice and atmospheric. 9 till 12, and then 1 till 4, I'm teaching. And then at 4:00,
we're going to eat dinner. We eat dinner very early, I know, and then decorate the house for
Christmas. I'm so excited. Woohoo! I'm actually shivering. This is shivering. I'm very grateful,
by the way, that I am able to just put my heating on. It's not wasted on me. In this country,
there are a lot of people who are struggling at the moment to heat their homes because it's
so expensive. We're having what we call a cost of living crisis, where heating is expensive, cooking
food on the stove is expensive, food is expensive. So the fact that I can come downstairs and just
put the heating on, trust me, I'm very grateful for that. And we don't put it on all day. We just
heat the house in the morning, and then we kind of just make do for the rest of the day. But yeah,
it's a bit silly in this country at the minute. But hey, don't want to get too political, do I?
Why have they changed... Morning! Morning, you! - Morning! - Why have they changed the oat milk
so that it's the same as the almond milk? - You what? - I don't like that because it used to be,
the oat milk was different from the almond milk, and now they look exactly the same. That's going
to cause confusion. - What colour...? Oh, the oat milk was blue. Wasn't it? - No,
it used to be beige. Oh, that's a rotten start to morning, that. Rotten.
What we're going to do is we're going to eat our breakfast, watch the news a little bit
because I like seeing what's going on in the world, eat breakfast, watch the news,
and then I'll talk to you afterwards. Now we need to wash up. So, I'm going to wash up and
then go and have a shower. Now, you can say "take a shower." I just say "have a shower." So there
we go. Let's do some washing up, shall we? So Bez is currently in the shower now. So when he's out,
I will have a shower. It's a lot lighter outside now, which is good. I feel a bit
more awake than I did when I first woke up, and then I'll get ready for the day. Woop woop!
- So, Laura's just doing her makeup. Why
are you doing your makeup? You don't usually do your makeup.
- Because when I put up the Christmas decorations,
I want it to feel like everything is right with the world.
- Everything is right... - Yeah.
- Oh, fair enough. Is everything right with the world?
- No.
- She says no. Hello, everybody. So, I'm just setting up for my day teaching. What we usually do
is we usually do 3 hours in the morning teaching, and then we have lunch, and then 3 hours in the
evening. I am well. 3 hours in the afternoon. I am currently putting on my wrist guard here. Now,
this is how dedicated I am to teaching. I have a thing called carpal tunnel syndrome,
which is basically when it—it's to do with too much typing, apparently. I've been doing
too much typing, leaning on my desk, so my wrists are—they're knackered, basically.
I'm just going to respond to some messages and some emails. Oh, how official. And I will see
you later. Bye. - Okay, we are now ready for the day. Everything feels a bit more
awake. The light is coming through the windows. Everything is good. So, I am sat at my desk,
ready to teach the first people I have today. I have two twin girls, and they're like 6 years old.
They're really little, and I have taught them for ages. I think I've taught them for three years,
I think so, I think so, which is crazy. And they're lovely. So going to teach them first
and then teach for two more hours after that. And then it'll be lunchtime. How exciting!
Hello, hello, hello. Hi. Hi, how are you?
Good.
What is—that's amazing. Have you done all of that yourself? But that's more than I
can do. I can't do that. Just chopping some peppers for tea later on because it's always
useful to be more prepared. And when you work from home and you've got 20 minutes
left of your lunch break, you might as well prepare for dinner. Do you,
would you call it dinner or tea? - I would call it dinner now. - Did you used to call it tea?
- Yeah, I think it's a Welsh thing. - Is it? - So,
I was talking to somebody yesterday actually about supper. Would you have supper? Would
you have supper growing up? - When I was a kid, yeah. - Supper?
- Yeah, on a Sunday we'd have supper. - Because this guy said he's from London,
and he said that in London, they don't—well, in the South,
they don't have supper. - What? - And he said it's because it's warmer,
whereas in the North, it's colder, so you need more food before you go to bed.
- Ah, that's clever. No, yeah, we used to have supper on a Sunday because we'd have breakfast,
then we'd have Sunday dinner at about 1, and it'd be so big that it would keep you
going for a long time. And then you get home from church at like 7, have a bit of supper,
some toast, sandwich. I'm just flinging a knife around. - My mom and dad always have crackers,
don't they? - Oh, I love a cracker. Cheese and crackers is really nice.
I've got little ... - Lovely! I'm excited. - Look at my weird little legs, my little legs,
my legs are like little elf legs. - They look like
little—asparagus legs. - They look like little elves coming to, like,
if you just saw these legs walking at Christmas time, they look like elf legs, don't they?
All done teaching for the day. Finished, woohoo! Some really lovely students today. All my students
are lovely, so that's always nice. Let's see if—I hope Bez is finished teaching. 'Cause,
I'm just talking right outside of his door. So if he's not finished,
then that's awkward. Berwyn, are you finished?
I hope he is. Hello, Berwyn. - It's lucky I finished. - It is lucky. I
know. - Here we are. Did you have a good day?
- I had a great day. You're showing me-- my messy desk here. My messy desk. I've had a sore throat,
so I've just got some lozenges. That's what people do, isn't it? They do that
for some reason. What we're going to do is we are going to decorate for Christmas, which is very,
very lovely. It's going to be really, really nice. I'm really looking forward to it because
when we decorate for Christmas, then I feel like I can really just enjoy the Christmas spirit.
What people have done this year is really random. People have been putting up their Christmas
decorations really early. So in my mind, Christmas is a holiday in December—well, it is, but people
have been putting up their decorations in, like, November, like early November. Halloween finishes,
and then it's straight into Christmas for a lot of people. Now, I don't know why. I don't know why.
- Right, time to cook some dinner. So, we're going to have chicken in a wrap,
barbecue sauce, and chips. Alexa, set a timer for 20 minutes.
- Oh. - "20 minutes starting now." - Oh, can you hear that car outside? What's
that? - A car, probably. - Time to put up a Christmas tree. - Oh, we got this Christmas
tree in here as well. Laura! - Oh yeah! - Do you remember that one? I love that one.
- We bought this last year. Where did we buy this? - Where did we buy that? Oh,
I know. We went to that place with your Mum. Do you remember? - Oh,
yeah, little shop. Of course, it's from a shop. Look at that. - "The shop!" - That's
a fun little wooden Christmas tree. Are we putting him on our, on our door by the way?
- Oh, yes, please. Look at him. - He's nice,
isn't he? I suppose we could put him... - Did we buy him? Recent?
- No, Sue gave him to us. Oh, yeah. I love him. - Are the lights in there, the Christmas lights?
- No. They're not in there? - No. - Interesting. - Are they in here? - No, I think they're in one.
They were in one of the—oh, there, they are! - Why did you say no before looking?
I don't know if you might think that's a bit of a pitiful Christmas tree... - But
for the size of our house, I think it's really balanced, isn't it? - Yeah,
we can't justify having a bigger one. - Yeah, because when we have a—if we move house,
then we can do with a bigger one. But I think that's fair enough. - Right,
where am I putting this snowman? - Oh God! Where am I putting him? - I don't really
like all those ones. - Oh, no. Laura, you've got to! Please, please! I'm putting him there.
- I don't like things that just sit there. I like... - No, that's the best stuff! And where
are we going to put this reindeer? This?- I like things to have, like,
a place. I don't want them just plonk—that's just plonked. You've just plonked it on the ground.
- No! That's lovely! - That's lovely. - That's
lovely. - That's lovely. - Is that it? Is that all we've got? - Look at that. All
of them for 6 pound. - Why are you looking surprised? You're the one who bought them.
- I know. But I'm just, I'm seeing the size of them. - You're just getting,
"Oh, my God!" - I know. Right. - That is good. £8. - So I'm going
to go for these... - And is a bauble always a bauble? Did you say that the
spherical ones... so the spherical ones are baubles? - Yeah. They need to be...
I mean, you could call, like, that a bauble, but to me, the... like, a bauble is a circle. - Right.
- Just decorating a tree. - So what are you doing now?
- So I'm just putting the basic ball balls on. I will zhuzh this a lot,
but I'm just going for the basics, you know? - What are the basics?
- Just, like, the boring—not boring baubles, but the ones that provide the meat,
you know? And then we'll go in with the more personalized ones that are
a bit more special. Look how cute those are! - Those are lovely. Yeah!
- Sweet! - You finished? - I think... I never know when to stop,
really. I think... - I think that looks perfect, Laura. - You think? - Yeah,
that looks amazing. That looks really good. - Yeah, I can never know where to stop. I'm
like Michelangelo. I'm like, "There seems to be a little empty patch there. Let's just..."
- I think that is... - Do we think we're missing these carrots? - Um,
I would drop a couple. Yeah, go on! - A couple of these carrots, just for a bit of different shapes.
I think it's nice to have different shapes. - Yeah. I love Christmas, you know? - Yeah,
me too. - I love it. So, I've put some tinsel up the stairs. Wow. - Like this. You love tinsel,
don't you, Laura? - Love it. - Come on. - Yeah, very good. That's cool. - And
then I put the tinsel on the bed. - Oh, yeah. - Nice. - Yeah. Nice.
- Why don't you like tinsel? - I do like tinsel. It just looks a bit random. - Does it? - A little,
little bit. - What do you mean? What, that tinsel or tinsel in general? - Um,
the tinsel there and on the stairs looks a bit,
random. - No, it doesn't on the stairs. It doesn't, especially not. It's lovely.
Just throwing a bit of tinsel everywhere. It's lovely. - Yeah. - What are you doing?
- So, this is the dining area. Um, I like to make this look Christmasy as well. So,
we're going to go for, like, I never know with these. Are they supposed
to go over the table runner? - Um, I think people have bigger tables,
and then it doesn't really matter. - True. - Probably... - I think over. - Well, they're
going to have to go over. Yeah. - Yeah. 'Cause that would look a bit silly. - They'd look a bit
strange under. They look a bit, like, um, wraps. You wouldn't know, you know. from a distance,
you wouldn't know. That's just, that's just a wrap. - Just a wrap. - To the naked eye. Um,
but yeah. - Wraps taste so nice on their own. - Are you just, eating it? - Yeah.
- Well, decorating finished. - Decorating is done. And I am, I'm,
I'm very tired. - I'm tired. It takes it out, you. - It's been a long day,
to be honest. - It has. - Feels like a long time ago since we woke up. - Thanks so much
for joining us today. - Thank you very much for joining us. Liverpool are going to play now,
so I'm going to watch Liverpool. - And I'm going to probably just rest. Thank you so
much for watching! - Thank you very much for watching! See you next time! Bye, tata! - Bye-bye!