How Did You Meet Your Best Friend? | Easy English 83

Hello, welcome to Easy English.

So today, I'm on Brighton  beach and I wanna find out

how the people of Brighton met their best friend,  

let's go. How did you meet your best friend?

We bought a house off him. - Wha…? I turned up  in RAF Laarbruch, which is a RAF camp in Germany.

The fella I was replacing was in  the same room as my now, best mate.

Within about twenty minutes, they’d er…

they’d stripped me naked and  tried to shave me nuts so…

so that’s how we met. - And that was it.

That was it, yeah. - Forged friendship.

Been friends ever since and that  was in about nineteen eighty…

about nineteen eighty-four I suppose I got there.

I see, and was he English or German?

Yeah yeah, no, he was English we were  both RAF firefighters at the time.

So er… yeah. And we've remained er… well him,

there’s another two fellas I was in Germany with.

The four of us have remained sort of,  friends ever since, really. So yeah,  

my best friend, her name’s  Vanita, she lives in Scotland.

Um… we met a long time ago in  Malaysia, where we were both born.

And she is the sister of my first boyfriend  ex-boyfriend. How did you meet your best friend?

I met my best friends at school,  when I was seven, in junior school.

Erm… yep and… aunty Claudia and auntie Ellen

and they’re now my children's  God-parents. - Well, one of them's mine.

One of them's your God-parent yep.  And erm… we've been friends forever,

we don't live anywhere near  each other anymore. - Right.

So, one lives in Oxford and one lives in London.   

I met my best friend Vicki  when I was eight years old,

in junior school and we have  remained friends ever since.

we went to senior school together.

And then, I got married and  had children and she didn't,

she remained single. And… but we've always met up,

once a week and now I am sixty-six years old

and we are still best mates and  we see each other every week.

No? - Yes. - Really? - It's fantastic. - Wow!

We’ve lots of support, through thick and thin,

ups and downs of life and we're  always there for each other.   

How did you meet your best friend?  - I met my best friend at er…

primary school, I was about six years of age.

We went through school together,

we went to junior school and as we  got older, we went our own paths.

Yeah. - Our own separate  ways, but we kept in touch.

I moved down to live in this area, in er…

Rottingdean and my friend went to  live in Harrogate in Yorkshire.

But we still kept in touch, we had plans to er…

meet regular and go on  holidays after our retirement

And he died of cancer, about six years ago now.

So, all them plans went out the window,

but we still keep in touch with his wife,

to see how she is and we just go on from there.

so it's a great shame that he died when he did,

but he was a very young man when he died. - Yeah.

But er… I'm afraid that is life. -  And can you tell me what is name was?

Eric. - Eric. How did you meet your best friend?

Well my best friend erm… I won’t  say I've got just one best friend,

but erm… currently, I've got two very good friends

who I’ve known since I was about fourteen,

which is getting on near sixty years.

I met them both at school, I  met one; we went to same school,

he was in a class below me, he  was my brother's best friend.

And the other chap; I met him  on a bus, on the way to school.

So, yeah and they've remained  good friends for yeah,

for the last, nearly sixty years. Tell me  about erm… how you met your best friend.

Erm… I met my best friend… do I  give names? - Yeah, go for it.

I met my best friend Sandy  when she moved into my area.

And we've now been friends for forty-two years.

She's am ama… an amazing person, very likeable,

very easy to get on with. D’you want  to ask me some questions about her?

Yeah, go on then. So erm… when  you said she moved into your area,

how… how did you actually meet though?

Erm… walking the children, walking our babies.

Okay. - Yeah, she hasn't  been a lifelong best friend,

but from the age of mid-twenties.

My… my mid-twenties, she has been.   what was it about them that like,

did it just click or was there  certain characteristics that you…

Yeah, I think it just clicked  and similar attitudes to…

to a lot of things or similar likes and  interests. Er… so what about dave like,  

other than the… the nut shaving that like,

sort of, made you dec… have this close connection?

I don’t know really, it’s er… well  we have… we… we had things in common;

we were doing the same… we were in  the same line of work I suppose,

we were both in the forces which is sort of,

a bit of a family in its own right, I suppose.

Yeah, he was just a bit of a  drunkard and so was I at seventeen,

eighteen so… She's fun, she's fun  erm… and she's quite insightful, say.

She's really, really stubborn.

That's not really why she became my best friend,

but… but that’s definitely  a very strong trait of hers.

And erm… yeah, we sort of share  some interests, you know, music and…

and you know, love of dancing and  socialising, things like that.

Does her stubbornness sort of,  get you out of sticky situations?

Her stubbornness no; actually drives  me mad, absolutely mad. - Oh.   

What are her character traits?  Why’s she such a good friend?

She is fun, we like the best things together.

Oh, you know, walking and partying occasionally,

when we’re allowed, not now.  But… and we go out exploring,

I think that's been the best  thing erm… since lockdown.

You know, we go out together into the countryside,

we both appreciate the peace  and um… the forest bathing,

I suppose you can call it.

We love the woods and we share,  just things that you know,

we both enjoy, eating, drinking.

And we've got lots of memories  from the past you know,

so we talk about our memories.

It's so important to have a good friend

but to have one of that long  standing is… I think quite unique.

Hmm… yeah, yeah. I don't know  many people that have friends

since that age, eight did you say? - Yes. - Wow,  

yeah. We both of the same  sort of personality. - Yeah.

And we just sort of, like, you  can… when you’re at junior school,

you have your little friends  and you have your mates.

And there’s some who you call friends,

but I don't really play  with them, or… go near them,

but they're still friends. But  we were really, really close.

Like, every day you know, at  play time’ ''where’s Eric?''

Or… or he’d be saying;  ''where's Malcolm?'' You know,

and then we just sort of, grew up that way.

And our parents and Eric’s  parents mixed and got together.

And we just formed like, a group.   Well we… we are all musicians,  

so we are in the same band together.

So, I play the drums and Guy’s a  singer and Clives a harmonica player.

Nowadays? - Yes. And we still…  we kept that band going. - Wow.

And that's been a major part of  keeping us in touch with each other

and having a lot of fun as well. -  Oh wow and what’s your band’s name?

It's called ''The Splinters''. She compliments  me, definitely. - Okay. - Definitely.

She brings the best out in me. - Ah.

Whereas, you know you meet people and you think;

oh they’re lovely, but then  you just can’t connect? - Yeah.

We… well we connected  straight away, but she’s the…

not the superior one of the  group, but she does… yes,

she complements me. And how often do you speak?

Depending, sometimes once every  other day and sometimes once a month,

you know. It just depends on  what's happening and where we  

are. And how often do you speak  now? - Well, he’s in Manchester,

so we try and meet up once  a year. We normally speak,

I dunno, maybe three or  four times a year I suppose.

Okay. Not… not… not that often I suppose, but…

But when you do, it’s like... - Yeah, we sort of,

pick up from where we left off really.

And er… yeah, it’s like we sort of,  haven't been apart for that long,

if you see what I mean, ‘cos we just sort of,

carry on where we were, so yeah.   

And now, you said she lives in Scotland,  right? - She lives in Scotland.

And do you live on the coast?  - I live in London, actually.

Okay, so then, that's quite a distance.

So how do you maintain this friendship?

Well, luckily there’s  ''Zoom'', there’s ''FaceTime''.

Yeah. - Especially during a pandemic.

And yeah, we chat a lot and  text a lot, things like that.

And I'm planning to see her soon actually.

You know, since we're coming out of this pandemic.

You going up or she’s coming down?

I wouldn't mind going up,  just for a change of scenery,  

yeah. Okay and you stay in touch?  - Yes yep, we stay in touch.

We’re seeing each other this weekend. - Oh really?

So that… - Are we? - Not you.

And erm… we stay in touch on the  ph… by texting and ''Zoom'' and er…

sending emails and messages and…  - Playdates. - And playdates.

And playdates and how frequently  do you speak to each other?

Erm… probably every week,  not as much as we used to,

before we will had children. Good memories? -  Great memories, some… some really good times.

I’ll… I’ll just tell you one storey.  - Yeah, yeah, I wanna hear it.

Okay yeah, we'd been out one night.

And he lived… his parents house  backed onto the Rochdale canal.

So we’d been out for the night  and we had a few to drink

and we’re going home there and he I says;

''I know a shortcut to me parents house'', right?

Rochdale canal. ''I know a part  of the canal where it’s shallow''.

So I said; ''good.'' Because I  don't walk all the way around.

So we’d had a few to drink, we just you know,

plopped ourselves into Rochdale canal.

I thought it would be ankle  deep and it was up to here.

So we… we… were… so we've got to  wade through the Rochdale canal.

And I said; ''Eric, what happened?'' He said;

''Ah, it was further up, I  remember now, it was further up''.

And we're in absolute… and  we’re up to here in water.

I remember now. - I remember just wading through.

And, at the time, you know, it was funny.

But in the morning, it was even more funny.

When we… you know, recollected it.

And we thought of what we’d done,  it was absolutely superb, yeah.

Thanks for watching this week's episode,

let me know in the comments below  how you met your best friend

And we'll see you next week, bye.   So we complement each other I suppose.

We don't drink like we used to,

so it's nice to be able to go out  and not get absolutely hammered.

And just have a normal conversation now I suppose,

now we're a lot older.   (inaudible) - No, it's five minutes.

Are you… are you not my best friend?

(inaudible) - I don’t think  he will be for very long.