Meaning of TO CATCH UP - A Really Short English Lesson with Subtitles

So I had a chance today to talk to some of my cousins

who I hadn't seen for a very long time,

and we were able to "catch up" with each other.

In English, when you use the phrase, "to catch up,"

the first meaning in the literal sense would be

to walk faster or run to catch up to someone.

But that is not how I'm using the phrase.

When I say that I was able to "catch up" with my cousins,

it means that we talked about the things we had done

in our lives since the last time we had seen each other.

So we talked about things like,

"how many kids do you have now?"

or, "Where are you currently working?"

or, "Have you changed jobs since the last time we talked?"

I happen to have a lot of cousins,

my mom has I think, four brothers and four sisters?

She's from a family of nine,

so there are a lot of people to talk to.

So when we do have the chance to talk,

it is fun to catch up with each other.

While we talked, the other thing that happened is,

things that one cousin would say, would "jog" the memory

of another cousin.

When somebody "jogs" your memory,

it means that they tell a little story

or they share something that helps you remember something.

So it was nice to be able to catch up

with some of my cousins,

and it was nice for us to be able to talk a little bit

about when we were younger and to jog each other's

memories a little bit, so that we could remember

different stories about times when we played together

as kids.

So, once again, it was fun to catch up with them,

to find out what they had been doing since the last

time I saw them, and it was fun to talk

and have my memory jogged a little bit,

so that I could remember fun things I had done with them

in the past.

Anyways, Bob the Canadian here,

and you're learning English with me, (laughs)

I hope you're having a good day.