English Addict Ep 359 -🔴LIVE stream / Sunday 20th APRIL 2025 / Join the LIVE Chat & Learn English

We have sunshine.

We have blue sky. Somewhere up there.

We also have a gentle breeze.

We have the birds singing.

We have everything going on at the moment on this rather Super Sunday.

And yes, it is Easter.

So happy Easter straight away to all those who are celebrating Easter and even to those who are not.

Hello. Welcome.

Here we go again.

It is English addict coming to you.

Live from the birthplace of the English language. We all know where it is.

I know where it is.

And you are now thinking.

Mr. Duncan.

Just get on with it.

Super Sunday.

It sure is a Super Sunday.

Here we are again. Oh my goodness. What a surprise.

Hi, everybody.

This is Mr. Duncan in England.

How are you today?

Are you okay? I hope so. Are you happy? Do you have one of these on your face?

Do you have a special Easter smile today? I wonder?

I have 1 or 2 reasons to be happy. First of all,

it is Easter.

It's also a public holiday, so lots of people this weekend are enjoying an extra day

with tomorrow being Bank Holiday Monday as well.

So many people will be off, so no doubt lots of people in the UK are relaxing and perhaps you are doing the same thing.

Maybe you also have a public holiday where you are for the Easter celebrations.

Anyway, I hope you have one of these on your face and even if you don't, I will try to put one there.

Over the next two hours. Oh my goodness, I know what you're thinking.

Do we really have to stare at your face for the next two hours?

Well, I'm going to tell you now.

You don't have to just look at me.

We also have someone else coming up today as well.

He will be here.

Yes. You know who I'm talking about?

You know the person it is.

Of course, Mr. Steve.

He will be with us at 2:30.

He's been in the garden once again, busily doing all sorts of things.

I think he was trimming his bush.

I think that refers to the gardening.

I'm not sure.

But he did tell me this morning that he bit.

He plans to trim his bush today.

I assume it has something to do with the garden.

By the way, I am Duncan.

I am Mr. Duncan. Some people call me that.

Some people call me other things.

Apparently, the other day, I heard someone say that Mr. Duncan. He is a coat.

At least I think that's what they said.

So, coming up today, we have lots of English, lots of subjects to talk about.

Oh my goodness.

On this Easter Sunday, for many people it is a special day.

So I suppose first of all, I should say Happy Easter to all those who are celebrating, sharing all of the celebrations.

And I know in many countries around the world, across Europe, over towards, I suppose, the Far East,

the Balkans, South America.

Many people also observe Easter in a very big way.

In fact, Mr.

Steve's sister was on holiday recently in Spain and she said that there were loads

of huge celebrations taking place leading up to Easter.

In fact, she said, one of the celebrations took place all day and also into the night as well.

So I would imagine that is something that is common in many countries.

And I'm sure you are thinking, Mr. Duncan, what about in the UK?

Do you still have big Easter celebrations?

I have to say we don't. We don't do it as much as we used to.

I remember growing

up we would often have Easter celebrations, lots of festivities,

festivals, celebrations, gatherings, pageants.

So quite often people would march or go through the streets wearing their fancy clothing.

There would often be some sort of theme connected to those things.

So when we talk about pageant, we are talking about a very

exciting celebration involving people and also activities.

Quite often there will be some sort of display going through the streets.

And I do know in many countries around the world, Easter is celebrated in a very big way.

So if you are doing that, have a super duper time.

Of course, the other reason why I'm feeling happy is because Easter involves food.

And if you are a regular viewer, you will know that I love food very much.

I am a big fan of food, especially sweet things.

So Easter gifts, chocolate, eggs,

eating lots of lovely delicious food.

Hot cross buns.

There is another thing a lot of people will eat over the festive period known as Easter.

And it is interesting that with many festivals, many religious festivals,

there is always food involved somewhere.

That is one of the reasons why travelling can be a good thing.

Because if you happen to be in another country where a certain celebration is taking place, you don't just have the opportunity

to witness some lovely cultural moments of time, you also have a chance to sample some very interesting food.

So I would always say that food is a big part of any type of celebration, including, I suppose, birthdays.

We often think of food being served during birthdays,

but with certain celebrations, certain types of festivities.

We will often have lots of delicious food as well.

Which brings me back to my original point about

my desire for chocolate.

Quite often we will give each other Easter eggs.

And imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up and there it was.

Look, a lovely big Easter egg.

Now, this is not a huge one.

It's not a really, really big Easter egg because to be honest with you, I'm trying to cut down on the amount of chocolate

and junk food that I'm eating at the moment. But here we go.

Look at that.

Mr. Steve presented that to me this morning. Isn't that lovely?

A lovely big Easter egg.

Also, it happens to be my my most favourite brand of chocolate as well.

So what about you? Did you receive something nice for Easter?

Maybe some chocolates, maybe a box of chocolates, flowers, perhaps.

I suppose when you think about it, there are many things you could buy someone for Easter.

Something as a gift.

Maybe a little chick.

We often think of Easter as being a time of birth.

Just like on the photograph here that you can see on your screen.

So we often think of this time of year as being a period of birth.

Things appear.

Things are born or I suppose you might talk about.

The basic belief behind Easter is, of course, rebirth as well.

If you are a religious person, you will know exactly what I'm referring to.

So for the final time for now, Happy Easter to everyone and I hope you have a super duper day!

Many people of course excited whenever we have a public holiday.

Whenever there is a long weekend, we always expect the weather to be good.

Now, as I mentioned last Wednesday,

there is one thing we are well known for here

in the UK and especially England. England.

Why did I say that? In a strange way.

England quite often has bad weather during the summer.

So we have had some some unpleasant weather.

Although today we have beautiful weather.

It really does look like Easter has arrived today because we have glorious weather.

We have beautiful sunshine.

And another thing you will notice is, well, you can also see that many of the trees now

have become green because we are just approaching summer time.

1 or 2 people say that summer has already arrived.

Others don't think so.

And very early this morning I got up

to listen to the dawn chorus.

So this is this morning's dawn chorus.

Isn’t that lovely?

So this morning I got up very early.

Because I wanted to capture the dawn. Chorus.

And of course, the birds sounded extra excited. This morning.

And I think it is because they knew that Easter had arrived.

Not only that, they will also be aware that summer is on the way.

I have to say, I am really looking forward to some nice days of sunshine for two reasons.

One, it's always nice when the sun is out.

And also we are planning our big rendezvous, which is coming up at the start of June.

And if you want to join us, you are still welcome to.

If you want to get involved with the festivities.

So I suppose you might say that we will be having our own festivities,

our own celebration on the 1st of June, we will all be meeting up in Paris.

I have to say, I love that music

ever so much.

Oh, okay.

Thank you very much.

To all those who said.

Mr. Duncan, you have something on your shoulder.

I checked,

and it was a dead moth.

So for the first 15 minutes of today's live stream, I actually had on my shoulder a dead moth.

It's gone now.

I have disposed of it.

I will take it to the local moth cemetery, and I will give it a lovely burial.

Maybe I will have a five gun salute for it as well.

We will see what happens.

Those are neighbours.

They will often complain about my gun salutes.

Every time an animal or an insect dies around here.

So I suppose I have to be careful.

We have sheep at the back of the house. Oh my goodness!

It's all going on.

It is never a dull moment.

It is never boring if you live in the countryside.

So you will have a chance to meet up.

If you are interested in meeting up in Paris.

Please let me know.

The email address is underneath this video.

The one you are watching right now.

Something I've forgotten to mention, of course, is the live chat.

Hello to the live chat.

Lovely to see you here on this Easter Sunday.

Who was first?

Oh. Very nice.

In first place, we have the champion.

He is back with his very first finger.

It is the Vytas.

Vytas...

Would you like a bite?

A little nibble of my Easter egg as a prize for coming first on today's live chat.

I will try to send some to you.

I will try my best.

Here we go then. Also we have Beatriz.

Hello, Beatriz. Where are you at the moment?

Beatriz, are you up in the mountains or are you down on the ground in the valleys?

Maybe.

Also we have the one, the only, the ever so lovely Luis Mendez is here today.

I've just realised because of this moth that I had on my shoulder.

There's lots of dust that has come off the moth.

And now I want to sneeze.

Unfortunately, I will try my best not to.

Also we have a whistle. A whistle, a what?

Who says hi?

Hi to you as well.

It is lovely to see so many people joining the live chat over the past couple of months.

We have lots of new people dropping by, dropping in, saying hello and leaving comments.

At the moment we have around 1000

new subscribers

every day.

Every single day. We now have 1000 new subscribers.

So hello, if it is your first time watching today, hello to you!

I hope you are having a good day.

We also have Franco, Franco, Ferrari.

I hope your Easter Sunday is going well also.

Christina will be celebrating her birthday just before we meet up in Paris.

We might have a chance to get together before that happens.

Mr. one. Hello, Mr.

one who says Mr. Duncan and Mr.

Steve, welcome back with the new live stream.

Thank you very much.

I always try to do this regularly.

Now this is an interesting word.

It's also hard to say if you do something regularly it means you do it often or normally.

You will do it at a certain time, a certain point of time.

You do it regularly.

Or we can say regular.

You have a regular schedule.

So my regular schedule is Sunday and Wednesday, 2 p.m.

UK. Time is when I'm here with you.

And and don't forget the month.

The month is getting its revenge on me.

Don't forget, by the way, there are lots of new English lessons

also on my YouTube channel as I try not to choke to death on the live stream.

Rosa is here. Hello, Rosso. Marzia.

We also have Palmira as well.

Nice to see so many people here today. Marut. See you.

We also have Fabio. Hello, Fabio.

Fabio, Gomez.

Who knows

exactly what I like to eat.

It is chocolate. Definitely.

You are right. Nico is here. I think you should have.

Oh yes. Thank you.

Nico, you were the first person to tell me about the dead moth on my shoulder.

It has gone now.

Sadly,

it didn't fly away.

It is no more.

It is an x moth.

Unfortunately.

Hello. Also to who else is here?

I want to say hello to.

A Rino typical yummy food.

Oh yes.

Castelo and Osteria.

Is that pastry?

Is that a type of cake?

I'm just reading your message here.

I am not sure if this is for me.

Or maybe it is a reply to someone else. I'm not quite sure.

Hello, Peter Tosh.

Peter Tosh Babu who says hello, Mr. Duncan, hello to you.

It's lovely to have you here today.

I am going to show you my sheep in a few moments because of course it is Easter.

So at the back of the house at the moment we have lots and lots of sheep and

unfortunately there is only one lamb at the back at the moment.

So we have lots and lots of sheep, but only one lamb running around.

I will show you that in a few moments from now.

Today we are talking about food. Food you can eat every day.

Food.

This is essential for your survival and of course, food

that you could eat every day if you had the chance.

I can think of at least four different types of food I would eat every day if I could,

but unfortunately, those types of food are normally unhealthy.

Unfortunately for me, they are unhealthy,

so I probably won't be doing that.

As I mentioned, we have sheep at the back of the house.

We also have cows not at the back of the house now, but in the past we have had them.

And after that, oh yes, he is coming up the wall.

The only Mr. Steve.

He will be with us in a few moments from now.

Today we are talking about lots of subjects, including the word blag.

Have you ever heard of the word blag?

What does it mean if you blag?

What is the meaning of the word? We will be talking about that as well.

Today, as I mentioned, we have sheep at the back of the house and here they come.

Right now, this is something I filmed yesterday at the back of the house.

So this is

a lovely view

at the back of the house of all the sheep that arrived just a few days ago, and then after that we have Mr.

Steve. He will be here.

Live. Don't go away.

This is English addict.

I'm a big boy now.

This is English addict coming to you.

Live from the birthplace of the English language.

Which is, of course, England.

Easter is in the air.

It is Easter.

It is Sunday.

I hope you are having a good Sunday.

Wherever you happen to be watching in the world at the moment. Did you see the lovely sheep?

Oh, yes, they are lovely. And we have lots of sheep.

We have around 50 sheep at the back of the house.

I can't believe how many sheep are there at the moment, but we do have around 50 and also one lamb

looking very lost and lonely.

Here he is then. It is the man that everyone loves to applaud.

Everyone loves to see every single Sunday.

It is the one, the only we are talking all about

Mr. Steve.

Hello wonderful, beautiful viewers from across the globe.

Here we are again.

It's 230 and I'm on and it's lovely weather outside. Mr. Duncan.

I've been outside trimming a bush.

I'm a big conifer in front of our front door.

That is in desperate need of a trim, and I've done my neck in as we have done my neck in,

which means I've slightly over extended my neck trying to trim this very big conifer tree.

You know what it is, Steve?

It's your age.

Of course, a lot of people might say, why are you doing that manual work on Easter Sunday?

Well, the thing is, I'm back to work on Tuesday.

So were there's limited time for me to do these jobs anyway, other people are mowing their lawns, doing all sorts of things.

That might come as a shock to some people who live in sort of very, let's say very religious countries.

Yeah. Who very devoutly celebrate Easter time.

But yes, I'm working on Easter Sunday.

Shame on me.

But we're working anyway because we're doing a live stream.

All right, Steve, just let me just say a few things.

First of all, for those who don't know who the hell you are, this is Mr.

Steve, by the way, and he pops up every Sunday to give me a helping hand because I am here for two hours every Sunday.

And despite the fact he's been very busy in the garden trimming his bush,

I wasn't actually sure what Mr.

Steve meant when he told me earlier he was going to trim his bush today, but apparently it is face garden.

He's trimming his bush in the garden, and the neighbours always love watching Mr.

Steve trim his bush.

It's a conifer tree that has really grown too big for where it is.

It needs cutting down.

Chop it, actually chop it down.

Get it doesn't need chopping down, but I've trimmed it down and, it's been great.

I feel full of energy.

Mr. Duncan, you ready to go for the next hour and a half, even though you've broken your neck?

Even though I feel it's all right, I think.

I don't think I've dislocated anything good.

But do you know what it's like? Start of the gardening season.

Your muscles after winter, have gone a bit flabby, and, they're not used to the effort that is required in gardening.

Yes, as I've already said, we know why.

We know why that is. It's it's it's old age, Steve.

You've got to start taking it easy.

You know, these young guys used to be that way, Mr. Duncan.

No way, no way am I giving it up.

Although I've got no room to talk because I have my big birthday coming up later this year.

It's a big one.

It's a big number, so?

So I should be very careful that Mr. Steve doesn't say the same thing back to me.

I might get a taste of my own medicine.

That is a good Friday, Sam. Staying fit, Mr. Duncan.

Gardening definitely keeps you fit.

Which is a good thing.

And we all need to stay fit. As we all know, we say this quite often.

We're told the advice thrown at us constantly is keep fit, exercise, and, rest, of course, in between.

But we're not resting today, Mr.

Duncan, because we're we're going to be, well, talking about Easter. You've got all sorts of things to talk about.

You've already shown the Easter egg I just purchased for you. I did show it earlier. Here it is.

This is the egg.

This is the beautiful egg that Mr. Steve bought for me.

Some beautiful Belgian chocolate.

And I can even smell it. I can, I can smell the chocolate from inside.

I'm like one of those dogs you see at the airports sniffing for the illegal substances.

Well, I would be very good at that.

But if my job was sniffing secret supplies of chocolate that people were smuggling in, I could.

I could sniff around and find that chocolate.

And we will consume all of it later.

Yes. This will be gone by tomorrow. Gone.

It will be gone by a probably 9:00 tonight. Gone.

And we have a special Easter roast dinner later on as well.

We will be making a lovely dinner.

Yes, I've been working hard in the garden, Mr.

Duncan, and now I've got to have put the oven on and cook a meal.

But it never stops for me.

Mr.. Stop, stop complaining. I'm going to help you.

I will be cutting up all the vegetables.

We have quite a selection of vegetables today, by the way.

We have Swede.

A lot of people don't like Swede.

I like it if you put it into.

Sounds very racist, Mr. Duncan.

Racist? Yes. Those of people don't like Swedes.

Oh, you mean the vegetable?

Oh, Swede.

Mr. Duncan, I understand what you mean.

Oh, Swedes a race. Well, I was. It's a joke, Mr. Duncan.

It's a play on words.

Yeah, well, even if you're from Sweden, you're not a it's not a race.

A I don't I don't understand.

You're being pedantic, Mr. Duncan. Identical.

I am being 100% awkward. Pedantic? It's true.

We have the.

Oh, by the way, we have the lovely guests.

The picture idiom coming up later on.

By the way, if you are wondering what's happening to me today with my throat when I started today's live stream, Mr.

Steve, there was a dead moth on my shoulder.

I don't know how long that moth had been a dead moth.

Big dead moth. And everyone was telling me there is something on your shoulder.

And when I looked, it was a dead moth.

So I tried to brush it away. But all this dust came off the moth.

It landed on you and died.

You must be toxic, Mr. Duncan. Well, I don't think it landed on me.

I think it landed on my T-shirt when it was hanging up.

And then I put the shirt on and the moth was was obviously holding on as tightly as it could

before it died.

Poor moth, poor poor moth. Well, I'm having it.

Let us remember him well. Yes. We hardly knew him.

We hardly knew.

We hardly knew that little moth. Mr. Steve, what was the life of that moth? We'll never know.

Where did it flutter?

Where was it born? What did it do?

All those memories are lost.

We will never know. Every fly, every insect that dies.

We know nothing of their lives.

It's very sad. It's.

It is.

But they are stupid anyway. Let's face it.

Moths might be the stupidest insect.

Because when you see him at night, they will flying against the window, trying to get in, and they just keep bouncing

on the window.

And if they get into the house, they just fly into the hut.

Lamps. Well, they didn't evolve with houses and windows.

That's true.

That's why flies can never find their way out.

Because your life didn't evolve with windows.

And unless you know what a window is, then you're going to find it very difficult to, to find your way around it. Yes.

We might have to wait for another million years for evolution to to instruct moths

that windows and light bulbs should be kept away from birds as well.

Yeah.

And the accent, did it not, Mr.

Duncan? The pheasant jumped up to try and go through the window to greet you the other day.

It did. It was very excited. It was very excited. And sir,

I wish I was

I wish, I wish I was as excited as that pheasant.

That's all I can say.

We have a lot to talk about today. Yes,

well, first of all, we have the live chat.

Has anything caught your eye on the live chat? Because A

is saying my family is Catholic and I am Catholic, but I do not go to church very often.

And I'm thinking, you see, today because it is Easter Sunday,

there are many celebrations taking place around the world, but not very many here.

But I do remember growing up there used to be lots and lots of festive events that would take place around Easter

and in celebration of the Easter season, but it doesn't really happen anymore.

We've given it up in this country.

My sister was in Spain, last week on a short break holiday to a city in Spain, and she was very surprised.

And, to see all the Easter celebrations taking place, all the parades.

This is in a major city, children, families, the whole families together.

Parades went through till 1:00 in the morning.

And they couldn't get a taxi back to the airport, all sorts of things like that.

But she was shocked at the fact that these traditions are still kept up in many countries in Europe.

Spain.

And as you've pointed out, particularly Catholic countries, but we don't have any of that here in this country,

the Church of England, as long as it's given up trying to instruct us what to do and

so we don't have it.

Actually, Lewis makes a very good point here on the live stream.

Lewis is always making good points.

Of course, being a man of the world and a wise man. Yes.

Through all his, many years of of life on this planet. What's the point?

That what he specifically asked somebody.

But the point is, when you're talking about religion, you can be.

Are you a believer or do you actually just follow the traditions?

Because if you grow up in an environment where a religious environment,

religious culture, but whatever that religion is, and there are lots of traditions that go along with that. Yes.

And sometimes they're very nice to do.

But you might want to take part in those traditions, but you might not necessarily.

As you get older, you may not have the actual belief. Yes.

But you might still want to take part in the celebrations.

Well, let's face it, Steve, in this country we have big festive events over Christmas.

But I would imagine most of the people celebrating Christmas would not go to church.

They don't go to church every Sunday, and maybe they just view Christmas time as a time to have some fun with the family

and give lovely presents to their children, and generally have a nice time.

And I think Easter has been the same in this country for a long time.

I think people view it as just another opportunity to have, a break, a holiday and eat some lovely food.

Just as many people

go to church to get married, because they want to be seen

getting married in a church that still got a lot of kudos, a lot of impact when you get married in a church.

But those people that are getting married don't necessarily go to church regularly.

Yeah, or even believe in the religion.

The church they're going to.

Yes, but they want to get married in a church because that's what people do. It's a tradition.

It makes people feel good.

It gives an impact to the the vows and everything.

But in a way,

they're not really being true to the religion.

They're just using the religion and the church, to get married.

They don't actually believe in anything that's being said. So it's a bit sad, really. Yeah.

Is it though?

Well, I suppose.

Look, Steve, I made this point to you this morning.

We wouldn't be here now talking like this.

That's all I'm saying.

If what I saw.

It's not a debate. It's not a debate.

Now. I'm just. I'm just making comments. Yes.

I'm not judging. I'm not judging. No judgement taking place.

Judgement is not for me. It's not for mere mortals.

Just only for the one above.

You're not turning into Russell Brand on.

You haven't found Jesus suddenly, have you?

Do not be judged.

Do not judge people, lest you be judged yourself. Okay. What's that from?

I don't know.

Oh, okay.

But, it's just, it's just a sort of a

way to live life, really.

Not to judge other people because, we're not perfect, and somebody might judge us, and then we'll feel bad.

So if you want to get really biblical, you could say he he who is without sin must can cast the first stone. Yes.

That means that if you are with sin, you should not accuse other people of being sinful because you have your own eye.

That doesn't have to be religious, doesn't have to be a religious thing.

It can just be, just the way you might want to live your life. Because we're all human.

We all make mistakes.

Nobody's perfect to sin. And, so just the church, somebody else for their behaviour.

When you don't know the context or where they've come from,

and anyway, if you look back in your life, then, well, we've all.

Well, I won't use the word

sin, but we've all done things that we regret that other people might say, I don't agree with that behaviour.

I think that's wrong.

So, yes,

my my list of regrets gets longer and longer as I get older.

I keep remembering things that I did years ago, and then I have to add that to my list of things I regret.

Because sometimes you do things, you forget about them, and then you suddenly remember that you did those things and you think,

I really regret doing that. There are many things in my life I regret doing.

Christina makes a good point as well.

I don't measure my spirituality by my attendance at church.

But I am a believer. Yes.

Just because you, you, you don't go to a church doesn't mean that you believe.

No.

There isn't

a requirement to do that because, you know, it's all about what you do privately yourself.

Yeah, yeah.

And the course the message is that, I mean, if there is a, you know.

A person directing everything.

I thought you were doing some aerobics then, and, I thought you were going into a higher intelligence.

This is some sort of exercise that Steve now does every all knowing being.

Then, they will know.

They will know what you're doing, what you're saying, what you're thinking, whether you believe or not,

although about 90% of them are hypocrites. At some point.

Mr.. Mr.. Steve, we've got to move on because I move on.

I move on, okay. Yes, that's what I just said. Steve.

And we're moving on.

We're moving on. Yes. Okay. Steve.

Oh, it's 252.

Everyone feels much lighter.

It feels a lot lighter than 252. Just me.

So here we are today. We are talking about food. My favourite subject.

In a little while we will be talking all about food and we are looking at an interesting word.

This is an interesting word that we hear quite a lot.

If there is something in life you have to do something.

You have to maybe attend

something important in your life, maybe something you are trying to get done or something you wish to achieve.

This is a word that we will often use because let's face it,

a few moments ago we were talking about wrongdoings and sinning.

And you might say that this is a type of wrongdoing, something that may be bad,

but I think, Steve, this is something that lots of people do.

Here is the word. I will put it on the screen.

I'm going to explain it first of all, Steve, and then we will talk about this because I think it's a very interesting thing.

The word is.

Black.

There it is. The word is black.

Now this word can be used as both a noun and a verb.

In this sense.

At this moment I am talking about the verb use of black.

So it might be a word that you've never seen before, but

it is something many people do when we are trying to achieve something.

Maybe we are attending a job interview.

Maybe we are trying to get into the local nightclub and we don't have any tickets.

Sometimes you have to blag

to talk one's way into something or somewhere, by the means of exaggerating or telling untruths,

obtaining something through trickery.

Now, this does sound like something that could get you put in prison, but it isn't that bad.

Blagging or two blag means

to slightly exaggerate things.

You are exaggerating your abilities. The things you can do.

For example, in a sentence.

Mr. Steve, we will have to black a little if we want those free tickets.

I I blagged my way into the job.

So it is an interesting word.

Black to black means to say things or to appear

to say things in a certain way.

Or maybe your your whole character can be used to obtain or get something.

So that's why we often use the word black.

It is a word we use to show that we are trying to get something.

And of course, we might occasionally exaggerate the state of using one's charm.

Well, we know all about that, don't we, Steve?

We know all about charm, because let's face it, Mr.

Steve is very, very charming.

The state of using one's charm and persuasion, or a certain amount of exaggeration

in a situation to obtain something, is black, and in this sense we are using it as the noun.

The secret of getting in for free is to blag.

The black never fails when you really want something to black as a noun, and to do it as a verb.

So Mr. Steve,

I'm sure you know what I'm about to say or about to ask.

I'm about to say at some point in a person's life, there might be a moment when it is necessary

to black a slight exaggeration of one's experience or abilities.

So, in other words, there might be a certain situation.

Can you think of a situation, Mr. Steve, where you might have two black.

Yes. Commonly at a job interview, as you've already mentioned, people will

sell themselves.

And if you go in for a job interview, you pretty much know that everybody else going for that job interview

is going to probably slightly exaggerate their achievements or embellish their achievements, embellish,

make them sound better than they really are by the use of clever use of words and sentences.

We've all done it.

Because if you don't, you're going to you've almost got to do a bit of blagging,

when you go for a job interview, because you've got to assume that everybody else is going to do it. Yes.

So unless you're really outstanding, then, you you I mean, in a way, is it dishonours?

It depends what you say.

Bragging doesn't necessarily mean lying.

It just means exaggerating the truth a bit. Yes.

In order to make you

want to get something. Yes.

In this case, what I'm talking about is a job interview.

We all learn to put our best foot forward to, to think of all, all the qualities that we have,

and then use examples which are probably stretching the truth a bit.

Yeah, that's a good.

Now I was going to say that.

So thanks for saying that.

You stretch the truth.

You you say something that is not necessarily untrue,

but it is not necessarily 100% true. Yes.

You might say, for example, somebody might say, tell me something about something you did at work that resulted in, in, in, in a change

in the way that the company, operated or something like that.

And you might said, well, I, I introduced this new scheme, it was a project.

And as a result of that, sales, went up 20%.

But you're not saying a time period.

You're exaggerating. There might not have gone up 20%, there might have gone up 10% or something like that.

Just just to a blag. It's almost somebody said, is it like to bluff?

Is it similar to bluffing?

Well, it is very similar because you are saying something that isn't technically or strictly accurate.

However, in this situation,

this is normally something you do at that very moment in time to, to achieve something

so you wouldn't normally blag in an email because that's something that is permanent, even though it can happen in that sense.

Yes. It's not really verbal, isn't it?

Normally verbal in a moment where you have to do something, you have to think quickly,

and maybe you have to say that you've had more experience in a certain job than you really have.

So I think the job interview thing, Steve, is actually a very good example, because that's the one that most people think of

when we talk about Blagging you are saying things that aren't technically true,

you are stretching the truth because you know that there's no way to prove otherwise.

Yes, that the person interviewing you probably has no connection with anybody at your work, so there's no way for them to actually check.

But at the same time, they'll know if you're really lying because

they'll have some idea of what the job you do anyway.

But it's not as long as there's no permanent record that you said that. Yes. That's that.

I think that is the big one, and we all do it.

And as you also pointed out as well, sometimes you might want to, I don't know, get into a nightclub, you might want to get into a party.

And, you've got to say something that's going to persuade the person that is stopping you

that could potentially stop you from getting in somewhere. Could be a restaurant.

You might go to a restaurant that overfull, you might say, oh, well, it's very important.

Oh, and by my, it's a very important birthday.

It's you and, you could you could sort of exaggerate about that, or you could say, oh, well, I, I know somebody that works here.

I do this a lot when I try to get into customers.

Yeah.

Well, I, I go somewhere and there is, you know, like a receptionist that is the block between me and who I want to see.

And I'll do a bit of blagging because I'll what I want them to, to think, say I've never been there before.

I want them to think that, oh, I'm not just a stranger turning up.

Even if I am, I might.

So, so I'll. I'll mention a few names that I've looked up on the internet about who works there.

Oh, well, last time I saw Julie, Julie knows me or something like that.

So that makes them feel. Oh.

Oh, yeah.

He must know what he's doing. I'll just phone up and see if they're free.

Just blag your way in a bit to places.

So you have to do that otherwise.

Otherwise, you know I can't just go say, can I see such and such? You know, bye bye.

You've got to sort of blag a bit.

So it's on the screen now, as you just said, at the door of a nightclub, you might say that, you know, the owner

so you can get in for free.

Of course you don't.

You don't know the owner,

but it is good if you want to get into a place or a nightclub and you say, oh, it's okay, I know the person that owns this place.

And if you know the name, of course that's even better. Yeah.

If you can say, oh, I know Jim, we, you know, we went to school together or something like.

Yeah, just you're blacking black and you're exaggerating the truth.

No one but but really, no harm is being done.

Black is when you. Black, it's sort of.

It's not really. You're not really doing any harm.

You are sort of just sort of puffing yourself up a bit.

As long as you're not put in charge of a nuclear reactor and you black

during the job interview saying that you know all about nuclear physics when when you only spent one hour studying through a book,

it's the job of the interviewer, of course, to discern whether you are telling the truth and test you.

Yes. Further questions. So so so blanking, I think.

And this is what Steve just said.

In fact, you might blank during a job interview or even during your job, your normal job.

I think it would be fair to say, even though it might get me into trouble,

I think most people at some point in their lives black.

They will.

At some point they will stretch the truth.

They will exaggerate slightly because there is something they want to achieve.

They know they can do it.

They are confident enough to do that thing, but they might just be judged negatively.

So if you stretch that thing slightly instead of them rejecting you, they might actually say, oh, I think you are the guy.

You're the one we are looking for.

Yes, you might have done a project at work that did result in some improvements in efficiencies or sales or something,

but then you sort of so you might have genuinely done something, but you might exaggerate its benefits from the for the for the interview.

But we've all done it and you sort of have to do it at a job interview because you assume everybody else's.

I had a friend recently seemed to mention no names. I mentioned a name.

I can't remember the name.

Good.

And, they were going for a job interview at the same company, and I was.

So we had a conversation because they wanted to know,

they wanted to ask me some questions.

So that would give them an advantage when they went to the interview because they were being interviewed by my manager.

Yes. My, my, my boss.

So, I told them all about, you know, what we do, how it works.

Yeah.

What are the best things to say?

The interview to get this person used to be in the same job as I was, but has been out of it for ten years, wants to get back in, and,

at one point I said, do you know, say that you've done, meetings with large groups of people?

Because that's what we do in my job.

We like to get lots of people, customers together and then get a speaker in to talk to them, because that sort of thing,

that seems to me like a very important part of that. It's an important part of the job.

And she said, well, I never used to do that in my previous job.

She's like, I can't talk about that because I've never done it. But I reminded her that she had done it.

She might not have organised it from the start, but she definitely was at meetings

where there were lots of customers and the speaker was there and she was talking to the customer, but she.

So I said, oh, I said, you can mention you. I know you've done it. I've been there with you.

And she's been I didn't organise it from the start. I can't possibly say that in an interview. That would be lying.

But, so so you're, you're kind of suggestion there would be.

Maybe you could blag slightly. Yes. Because.

Because she would.

This person knew the process. Yes.

Of how to set a meeting up like that.

She just hadn't done it from start to finish.

Well, I mean, you wouldn't say, oh, no, I've never done that.

You would know what the process was. So that's when you're blocking.

If that's part of the experience required to do that job, you must at least have an understanding of it.

And if you haven't done it, say that you've had experience doing it.

Yes. Do not.

Don't say, well, I've never actually done that really physically properly.

I've never actually done it.

Because if that is a part of the job, then there is a good chance that you've just blown your chances, which is what happened.

Unfortunately, she didn't get the job.

But you know, I'm not saying she

would have got the job she had said about the meetings.

But yeah, it's it's an employer's, if particularly if you're in sales. Yes.

Then whether you're telling the absolute truth is not so important

is the fact that you're able to blag a bit because they know that you'll have to do that with customers anyway.

So if you can't do that, yes, that is interesting.

As an interview situation, then they'll be thinking, well, like, I can't even convince me of anything.

I know that might be a slight exaggeration, but if they can do that to me in an interview, they'll be able to.

They'll be quite good in front of the customers selling something, because you've always got to exaggerate.

If you're in sales a bit, it's part of the job.

All selling is exaggeration. Have you?

If you ever watch any TV commercial, everything on there is exaggerated a little bit because if they were really honest with you,

if they said this toothpaste might actually not work for you, all your teeth still might fall out.

You would never buy the product.

So you need to say your teeth will be bright and smiling, and you will have lots of people wanting to marry you overnight.

You always talk about the good points of your product, whatever that product is could be.

If you go in for a job interview, you are the product yes, you are trying to sell.

You're selling yourself. You're selling yourself. And

as you say, you don't see TV adverts pointing out the disadvantages of their products.

They point out the good things, the advantageous things.

Like an electric car.

They don't point out that it might only, you know, they might have a spectacular design.

And they're going up and down mountains and, steps.

And they've got that beautiful partner by the side, and they're happy their lives are complete,

but they don't tell you, for example, that it might only have 100 mile,

100 kilometre range or something, or, or the some of the problem with it that they only talk about, they only talk about the good things.

And that's blagging. Yes.

When you don't, when you're only talking about the benefits of if you or your project or whatever it is.

But again, it's a good example of the job interview where I think we all just excel it.

We accept all of that.

We know that every person that comes through the door that we have to interview,

they are all blank, because that is part of the game that we call life, I suppose.

So everyone is slightly exaggerating their abilities, exaggerating themselves because they have to stand out from the crowd.

It's true to sugar.

The pill, says Beatrice. Yes.

Very similar. A tall tale says salary. No.

Yes. Yeah.

It's it's it's this truth in there. Yes.

But it's exaggerated. Yeah.

It's the in order to and of course we all know people we all know are blacker.

You can tell by the way they're talking because no one's that good. Yeah.

And they usually don't stop for a break because they know that if they stop talking, you'll have a chance to think and ask a question.

So bloggers tend to talk a lot, and they don't they don't

they don't want a break in the conversation because that gives you a chance to think,

but anyway, that's blagging. Yes it is.

It is an interesting part of human interaction where people are having to deal with each other to embellish the truth.

So here is another way of describing that particular action

to embellish the truth or make something seem more than it is might be described as blagging.

So you are blagging. You are exaggerating. You are embellishing.

To make something appear more attractive to someone else,

add details or exaggerate a certain thing.

Your ability, the amount of time that you've done something for

or maybe to pretend that you know people that you don't know.

You have no idea who they are.

But if you say you know them, it might give you some sort of advantage.

So I think it is very interesting that deception.

And let's let's be honest, it is a type of deception.

When you think about it, the use of one's charm or appealing personality might help someone to blag their way

in to a job or a place, an attractive person.

And I think, Steve, we have to talk about this.

I think we do have to talk about this.

I know, I know, we we live in strange times where people now are being put in rockets and sent off into space.

If they say the wrong thing

or if they don't sing very well.

An attractive person with a charming persona

might have an advantage.

Now, I'm not talking about ladies only, but I think men as well.

So perhaps if you go to a job interview, Mr.

Steve and let's face it, you are an attractive. You are very attractive.

I think if you went for a job.

And this is why Mr. Steve always gets jobs, by the way, he turns up to the job.

Are you saying that I'm a, a member, Mr.

Duncan? No, that that's exactly what I didn't say.

I said that's part of your charm.

Well, not at my age, surely.

No. You you what you do, you look and you you flutter your eyelids.

I don't, with those beautiful eyes, those sparkling jewel eyes.

And Mr. Steve gets, gets the job every time. I've never known Mr.

Steve not to get a job. I've only had three jobs in my entire lifetime. And you got them all

one to.

Yeah, three jobs.

Anyway, we we just use Steve. It's not an examination of you.

It's it's it's.

Are you slagging Mr. Duncan? Are you are you blagging.

Are you trying to big me up, make me feel.

Well that that is something that you want from me later. That's flattery.

Flattery. Flattery is different.

Yeah. So that's what he says.

Fishermen always exaggerate about their fish.

Oh, yeah, they blag about.

Oh, it was that big? Yes. Well, we can't see what you're doing, Steve.

It was. It was a big fish.

It was still can't see you. It was that big.

It was, it wasn't. It wasn't that big.

It was that big.

Men often exaggerate about the size of their fish.

So maybe their fish is just this large little tiny thing.

We call it a tiddler.

So a a man will

often exaggerate about the size of his tiddler, his tiddler is only small,

but he will say that it was actually a big one.

Okay, so I can hear outside when really all he has

is a little tiddler.

And a lot of men do exaggerate about the size of their fish and other things.

So an attractive person.

I think if someone is attractive, I think they do have an advantage. They do?

Oh definitely they do.

Definitely. Yeah.

Men and women, they all have that ability.

Maybe a man turns up for a job interview and it's it's a lady

conducting the interview.

So he might know this already.

He might turn up and make himself look really handsome.

I will I will be charming.

And maybe if I do, very well, if, if I use all of my charisma,

maybe I will get the job. Yes.

So I think you have always been very successful in that area, Steve, because you are a charming person, and everyone says that.

I think you're right, Bambu.

A Palmira says, is it similar to the word brag?

Oh, no.

No, because brag is normally talking about something you have done, or you have something you really do have and something you have achieved.

Brag is just to show off something.

So you brag about it.

You brag.

Quite often we use that to mean you are just showing off.

You brag about your new car, you brag about your big house in the countryside.

You brag

about your mail order bride that yes, bragging is showing off.

Yes, whereas Blagging is is just exaggerate it in the truth to get something like a job interview.

They they sound similar.

Bamboo says it sounds like Mr. Duncan is trying to sell out or sell.

Miss Hindi is the word that, yes, I know, but I wasn't going to use that. You say?

Okay, I was going to use, but it's okay, Steve, you just say it. You say, I'm.

I blame you when my YouTube channel gets taken off

of that word, you'll be Steve.

You'll be surprised.

Haven't you heard? Everyone's being cancelled for saying things.

No, I'm not trying to sell out.

I'm not trying to put Mr. Steve on the market for anything in particular.

Not yet anyway. I might be putting myself on the market.

I might have to go in, sell myself at the back of the Guildhall in Much Wenlock again, like I did a couple of years ago.

Those farmers can be very rough, I really can.

So no, I'm not putting Mr. Steve on the market.

Not yet anyway. We'll see what happens.

So I think it's an interesting part of human psychology and also behaviour as well, that quite often we will exaggerate things.

We often put ourselves forward in an exaggerated way.

We are going to take a quick break

so I can have a drink of water for my poor sore throat, and then we will be back.

Mr. Steve will be joining us in a few moments and I will be back as well.

After this little break.

I am looking forward to having a lovely break in the sun later this year.

This is English addict coming to you

live from England.

English addict is with you today.

It's very nice to have your company. Mr. Steve is also with us.

Joining us in the lovely, cosy, comfortable corner

of the studio.

Can I let you in on a secret

after my live stream finishes?

Normally, not today, because I have to help Steve in the kitchen.

But normally I will go over there to that corner and have a rest because that that chair is so comfortable.

This chair was, I, my grandparents used to have this chair.

And then my parents had it, and, it's been, recovered, very cushioned.

And it's still in the family. Yes.

So so so so now that is part of my studio set.

And it also serves as a lovely place to rest.

Rest my aching back. Here we go, Steve.

It is Easter, as I've already shown.

We have our lovely Easter egg for later on and we received a lovely card as well from your sister.

Look at that. Isn't that beautiful? A lovely Easter

wish from your sister.

And do you know what that bird is? Steve?

That looks like a it.

Don't tell me I'm not going to, that.

Look, it's not a pheasant. It's,

It's, Yes, it's.

Yeah, I can't remember. I can't remember the name of it. Oh, don't tell me there.

I'll try.

I'll try and remember somebody you're probably telling me on the other live chat.

That's it. If you don't tell me now, someone on the live chat will say anyway.

Well, let's see if, let's see if somebody else can get it. It's obviously.

I do know I just sent one, too.

This is a very common bird.

And inside there is a lovely message that it says

so I'm only joking.

Steve says, don't open the card on the, so I won't.

I will definitely not show what is inside there. But it is from your sister.

Thank you Janice. Also, thank you very much.

Daffodils on the front. Yes, there are daffodils.

Thank you, Janice, for your lovely gift as well.

The chocolates that we did eat very quickly.

They've now gone, unfortunately.

But if you could send some more, I would be ever so grateful.

So, Mr.

Steve, we are talking about food because when we whenever we think of these festivals, we always think of food.

And we are going to have a nice meal today. Chaffinch.

Sorry, this is a chaffinch.

It's like I wasn't sure what was happening. I thought you were having a seizure.

I tuned in to a higher power. Really?

I think it's a chaffinch, am I right?

I didn't, I don't know, I thought you knew Mr. Duncan.

No, you were blagging.

But where did you get that from? Well, because of the colour. The colours. I think it's a chaffinch.

I might be wrong.

It is a chaffinch.

Oh it is, it is a chaffinch. Yeah.

It suddenly came a suddenly came to me from another place.

Yeah.

I had to make sure then you weren't cheating by, by using the live chat. No.

Yes, you are right. It is a chaffinch, a beautiful bird.

The males always look splendid and that particular bird on the card is a male.

Here we go then. Steve, my favourite subject.

I think it is many people's favourite subject.

Everyday food. When we talk about everyday food.

Food you

eat everyday and there are certain types of food that you might think of.

When we talk about every day food.

Food you will have normally as part of your normal routine.

And of course, we also have types of food that you would love to eat every day if you had the chance.

And there are many reasons why you can't.

Food consumed every day is referred to as a staple.

Now, I think that's a very interesting word, the word staple.

So if something is a staple, what does it mean? Steve.

Yes, it's it's, fundamentally an important constituent in your everyday diet that most people will eat.

A good example would be wheat bread because, bread is very important.

Wheat grain for has been for

tens of thousands of years for mankind.

So wheat would be a staple, a staple diet.

The almost like a main thing, an important constituent because it gives you energy, it gives you protein, it gives you vitamins and minerals.

It's something that if you cut out of your diet all together, you would probably be lacking in something.

I'm not saying if you cut out bread, you'd be lacking in something.

There's always something you can replace it with in,

sort of countries like China, the East rice would be a staple.

Okay.

Because it's just a fundamental part of everyday cuisine.

Other cultures, it might be meat, but certainly rice, wheat

would be, I would say would be staple foods. Foods.

It would be difficult to do without it.

So. So staple is the word that refers to something that is is a is a valuable thing

to to an individual as far as their diet is concerned.

This is often required food for nutrition and sustenance.

So again another interesting word sustenance to keep you going.

To keep your body functioning you need sustenance.

And that often refers to stored energy or the things going around your body that can

that can help you to be healthy and also survive as well.

A person's five a day

is a required type of food needed for good health.

So we often talk about five a day around the world.

I suppose people have different terms for this, but the essential things that you have to eat every day are often

seen as the everyday food, the different types of food that contain those valuable things.

And we are often told that we must eat five certain types of food every day

a required type of food needed for good health is your everyday food, your staples.

People are telling us what their staples are.

Yeah, please do tell us because different countries you will have different staples, different sort of primary foods.

As Christina put it.

Aziz has said, couscous, which we know is very popular in sort of what we would describe as Middle Eastern countries.

What is that?

Couscous.

It is wheat, but it's a type of, small.

I think it's wheat, isn't it? Couscous.

Yeah.

Well, I'm asking you.

I'm not actually saying I haven't eaten much couscous over the years.

I've tried it, but I don't think I'm actually very keen on it.

It's quite fluffy.

I don't think it's rice.

I'm sure it's wheat based.

Yeah. As, a lot of diets around the world. Wheat based.

But it's very popular in sort of places like Morocco.

I'm just giving an example.

But please tell us, what the staples are in your country.

I mean, we would have said in Ireland, for example, potatoes would have been a staple,

going back 100 or 200 years.

Everybody knows about the Irish and potatoes, or lack of them.

Yesterday, of course, they had the the potato blight, which caused widespread famine, which they blame the British for.

But anyway, that's another story.

But yeah, that would be it's normally something that's giving you energy,

so wheat carbohydrate

giving you energy, potatoes carbohydrate giving you energy.

But meat of course is a staple.

You need protein eggs. Somebody mentioned eggs. I think that was Beatrice.

I always think that's a very good suggestion. By the way, eggs.

But we always buy eggs. But we don't eat them very often, do we?

And whenever we eat an egg, we always say the same thing that we say we should eat eggs more often.

They're so delicious. But then you forget about them.

Maurizio, of course, coming from Italy, mentions pasta, which, of course, is a staple in Italy.

It is a form of wheat. Yes.

Wheat is a wonderful food because you can you can turn into all sorts of different foods.

So you can have bread, you can have pasta, couscous, all sorts of things.

So it's a very flexible,

food product that you can do a lot with.

Which is why it, of course, is a staple in a lot of countries.

Palmira says bulgur is also wheat.

And that comes from Turkey. Turkey.

So I'm just wondering whether that is also a type of couscous. Maybe.

So it's I think you are right, Steve. Even though.

I don't know, but I think it might be wheat based.

These foods are type of types of food that we often see as essential or staples.

And yes, you are right, Steve.

These foods are fruits, grains, vitamin enriched types of food containing essential things, things that the body needs.

And it is amazing, even these days, how some people still manage to to not on purpose.

They accidentally damage their bodies by leaving out certain types of foods.

They might even not not even be aware of it.

In fact, I was in France and a staple food for them, of course, is champagne.

And caviar.

I always imagine French people are always eating lots of champagne and caviar.

But yeah, what would be a staple food in France, for example?

We've been to France as many French food.

It's got many, many different varieties.

Let's say French people with their variety of food.

I can tell you meat serves a very big role in French cuisine,

especially the red meats, beef, beef, especially beef, lamb, and to a certain degree, chicken as well mashed potatoes.

Rediscovered, discovered.

That seems to be a staple in, in many, certainly lots of restaurants.

A mashed potato or a form of mashed potato.

Trust me, we are going to talk about mashed potatoes.

Definitely, because that happens to be on my big list.

Yeah. Please tell us, you know, your country, what your staple food.

What is the a common food. Almost a daily requirement.

Something that is gives you your main energy and sustenance is a good word.

I think we've mentioned that before.

Yes. India. Of course it'll be rice.

Lentils.

If you're vegetarian in India, lentils and rice will be your staple food, I would imagine.

Easy to grow and,

they type of bread is made there, which we have, which would like a naan bread.

But that's not made from wheat.

I believe that's made from it might be made from wheat, but I think it's made from chickpea flour, which has a certain name.

So if we've got anybody watching from India, can you please tell us what naan bread are made of?

I don't think it's wheat.

I think it's a different type of flour from chickpeas, which has a name, but I can't remember what it is.

But couscous, yeah.

Can be made from wheat, but also can be made from flour, says Aziz Aziz. So thanks to that, that's quite interesting.

So North African countries. Yes. So I think I think it is it is consumed in many places.

I'm not keen on it because normally it's served cold and there are certain types of food.

If it is served cold, I, I don't really like it.

We're not keen on cold food in the UK. No, we don't normally have cold food. We're not big fans.

We like our food to be steaming hot.

There are types of food one could eat all the time.

Mr. Steve.

A certain food that is one's favourite food.

So some of us, even though we are told that we have to eat certain things,

some of us of course have our own favourite food, and maybe if we had the chance.

So it doesn't mean that we actually do it. But if we had the chance to do it,

we would love to eat it every day.

And I suppose I've already given mine away.

Mashed potatoes I love

mashed potatoes.

You boil the potatoes until soft.

You put some milk.

Full cream, milk, butter, full cream, butter.

Sometimes a little bit of salt.

And you mash those potatoes up until they're thick and creamy.

I absolutely love that's a staple for you.

Really. You don't have it every day, but I think it could become a staple.

I think you're probably Irish or something. I'd say. Well, that's the thing.

You see, I said something that you would love to eat every day, but you, you know, it would be unhealthy.

So that is my food that I would love to eat every day if I could do it.

But of course, if you if you were to eat piles and piles of mashed potatoes every day, Steve, I would definitely it gets a little bit

overweight.

Now, of course, potatoes are potatoes.

Get a bad press, so to speak.

They get, they get, we say a bad press, a bad rap.

They get criticised a lot. Bad reputation.

So again, they get a bad reputation.

They get a bad reputation by,

people who are promoting losing weight because they're seen as carbohydrate foods are seen as, as bad foods.

If you want to lose weight.

So bread, pasta, wheat based products, potatoes.

Are seen as bad by people wanting to lose weight and right by dieters.

It's all of it's all of the starch, isn't it? And we have a Claudia.

Hello, Claudia. I was going to ask, what's cooking? Claudia.

But Claudia has told us I am cooking dumplings filled with mashed potatoes, fried onions and bacon.

That sounds absolutely amazing.

I really want to try that.

That does sound like it sounds a bit like an onion bargy.

Steve.

Claudia, you should have men falling at your feet, for your cooking.

Because, it's every time you mention something cooking, I just want to fly over and sample it.

Yes. Oh.

Mashed potatoes.

It's well known in Algeria.

Where as it is, is is, like a puree in the French.

All right. Okay. Yes.

Mashed potatoes in Paris when we've had it.

Or in France, it's sort of not like the mashed potato we'd make here.

It's more sort of creamy. It's. It's more puree.

They actually put lots and lots of proper real cream milk and butter into their creamed potatoes.

That's what it should be.

If you want to make real mashed potato, you've got to put that the real ingredient.

I've got anybody from India watching.

It's gram gram flour is what, but is that for Papa Dom's or is that for,

is that for, the, the naan bread, which I believe is gram flour I think is gram.

See, I was thinking it is, chickpea flour, I believe I always thought that naan bread was made with just a very unleavened type of it.

Maybe. Yes, it may well be.

So I think I'm going to pop it, which are made with, gram flour, but I think I don't think you can.

You can buy bags. I've seen it in the Indian shops.

Okay. Bags of gram flour I think can be made.

Is anybody from India watching? Yes. If you please. Yes. That's the

snack food or convenient

food types tend to be popular, I suppose, Mister Steve, and we all suffer from it.

In fact, we were doing it last night.

We had some food in the house that was, let's just say, a little bit unhealthy,

a little unhealthy snack food.

Convenience food. We did eat a lot of food last night.

And there's one particular type of food we love, isn't it, Steve?

Does it begin with C?

No. The other one.

Well, we had last night. Yeah, it's

chocolate sweets.

Mexican.

Oh, right. Yes, yes.

Know what are they called?

Nacho nachos?

Yes, they are triangular.

And I think they're also made with corn or maize.

And they're deep fried and they're crispy. And there are lots of different types of

nachos

that you can you can eat, but oh my goodness, are they delicious? Yes.

Corn. We've got to fit. We mustn't forget corn.

Which is a carbohydrate source like wheat is a staple in some countries as well.

That's cool.

I think in parts of America.

Sydney.

Yeah. It's, it's a, it's a like a staple food, something that you always have in the house. Yeah.

You can see on the screen there, there is some at the bottom of the screen. There is some popcorn.

It's been there all the time.

Look at those beautiful pieces of soft popcorn.

Oh that's another thing I could eat every day.

Popcorn with lots and lots of sticky toffee all over them.

So quite often we often think of convenient food.

Convenient food, so not convenience food, but food that is convenient.

So anything that you can

grab or eat

conveniently, something to obtain and something easy to prepare.

I suppose.

One thing we eat a lot of here, Steve, is, beans. Baked beans.

Baked beans? Yes. Straight from the tin. That's a staple food.

Definitely, because we we don't eat it every day, but we have it at least 2 or 3 times a week.

We have baked beans on something.

Because it's a quick, easy meal.

And it's good for you.

Although coming out of a can, how good for you actually is it beans?

You know, various forms of beans are a staple in some countries as well.

Again, carbohydrate based, but they've got protein in them as well.

Yes. So, various types of beans, are often a staple food other than healthy food.

There might be food we could eat every day.

So I suppose potatoes are all right as long as you don't eat too many.

But I could really eat them.

I could definitely eat potatoes every day if I had the chance. Many people do. You bread.

So you mentioned bread earlier, Steve.

But a lot of people these days now don't trust bread.

Many people view bread as not healthy, but we might eat it every day.

So there is bread.

And of course, I know what Steve going to say because we are quite self-sufficient, aren't we,

with bread.

Yes, I, but I bought a bread maker over a year ago now, and it's become a major part of our lives.

And I've, I didn't buy it to save money.

I bought it because I wanted to stop buying supermarket bread, which we know is not good for us.

Full of salt additives and whatever.

But in fact, it's so cheap to make I eat the bread maker because I think it cost me about £100 at the time.

Which sounds a lot of money, but it paid for itself with the.

I worked at it. It paid for itself within six months.

I didn't buy to save money, but I bought it because I wanted to make healthier bread. But,

Yeah, it only costs about £0.70 to make a loaf of bread in the machine.

I've worked out what it is.

It's £2 in the shop, so almost at least a third of the price.

So I worked out that it's paid. It paid for itself within six months.

Which was quite good.

And we've got healthier bread. I don't I don't feel any healthier.

No, but, psychologically, I know I'm not consuming lots of, additives.

Well, it's go into shop bought yet know that there was always that thing I would always hear about bleach in white bread.

So they would often bleach the grain or the flour.

So to make the bread appear much whiter than it really was, I'm not sure if that happens nowadays, I don't know,

but we do make our own bread, and we like to think that it is a little bit healthy.

Brazil. They eat a lot of rice and beans.

Practically every day, says Marcia.

Which, which sounds, lovely.

And of course, bread.

Who can resist?

A nice, some nice Italian or French bread, which is, delicious if it's made.

I mean, if you can get your bread from a boulangerie who, you know, has made it

properly or, or some nice Italian bread from, a baker, a proper baker.

Then you'll going to be safer.

We used to have a baker, a shop in Much Wenlock where it closed down and we didn't like, they had to have to go to the supermarket.

Yes, to the bread.

But yes, you know, the bread safe white bread, of course, is supposedly not as good for you

because the fact you want the fibre is supposed to be, much better for you,

but, sometimes.

Yeah. A little bit of white bread. Okay. It's nice.

The other foods that we often eat every day besides white bread or brown bread, of course, a lot of people these days prefer brown bread.

Other daily foods include cereal.

Cereal can be something you have for breakfast.

Yeah, a little bowl or something you have maybe in your porridge.

So maybe there is brand.

There is.

There are oats.

That's that's another very popular type of food that people like eating.

And of course, I suppose chocolate rice and pasta.

But of course, the thing that most people love to eat are the things that are contained within the food.

And by that I mean sugar and salt.

And I have to say, I will say it. I am slightly

addicted to sugar.

I do like sweet things, even though deep down I know, I know it is.

It is not.

Well, cereal is definitely would come under a staple food. For a lot of people.

As you say, oats, which is of course a grain similar to wheat.

But,

traditionally we think of people in Scotland, eating a lot of oats.

I don't know if that's the case now, but, I mean, I have I like porridge, but I can't have it every day.

It's quite heavy.

So I will have some kind of cereal every day, which is either oats

or wheat based and, but, yeah, you could say cereal was a staple.

I think it's becoming less popular now.

Because I read somewhere that, there was a cereal factory in the UK closing down because people are eating less cereals now.

They're certainly eating less of the sugary type of unhealthy cereals that, recently have been getting quite bad press.

Okay. Christina says Rice Krispies. Yes, I

Rice Krispies are a type of commercial cereal,

and I do love anything like that, especially when they have lots and lots of sugar on top of them.

I have to say, if you could, what food would you eat every day?

Mr. Steve, without regard of the consequence.

But I definitely have chocolate every day. Well, I do have chocolate every day.

You almost do only a small amount.

But, you know, if if there were no health consequence cases,

I would, Well, actually, I pretty much eat what I pretty much eat what I like to eat.

I don't really eat anything I don't like.

I would say so every day. The thing is, with eating something every day.

Is that you become bored with it.

I've been out, I mind you, I probably do have bread every day, okay.

Because we make it, I probably have a cereal every day.

But, yeah, wheat is definitely something I consume one way or the other every day.

In fact, I think since we started making our own bread, I think we consume more bread than we did before.

I definitely it's it's safe to say so. Well, we all know mine.

It would be mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes.

I absolutely love them. And garlic, you'd have garlic every day as well.

Can I just say I.

I have fallen completely in love with garlic.

I don't know what it is. I've always liked it.

And of course there are many foods that people dislike.

What food do you dislike or find hard to eat? You know mine.

You don't even need to ask me because everyone knows now I don't like mushrooms and I don't like kidneys.

I can't eat those things.

What about you, Steve? Is there a food you hate? Yeah.

I don't like seafood.

By seafood, I mean things like mussels and pearls.

Not fish, I like fish.

What about crabs? Crabs? I don't like that kind of meat.

Crab? Steve. Pardon?

Have you ever had crabs?

Well, we won't go into that, Mr. Duncan.

But I know what you're trying to get me to say. Mr. Duncan.

Man, there's a lotion you can get for that from the from the camera. What about lobster?

No, I don't like anything that smells fishy.

I'm not keen on, so I.

So. Yeah.

Mussels, prawns, anything like that. I'm not keen.

I remember it in the 1970s. In the early 1980s?

No, there would always be someone who would go around in the pubs selling shellfish and something called whelks.

Whelks?

They're like little tiny fish in shells.

And you take them out and you suck them down.

Disgusting things, they smell, smell, they smell.

Not very nice. Let's just say, Mr. Steve, we only have ten minutes left.

Oh, yes. Quickly as this.

As this quickly says, do we have do we make spicy food in England, like in India or North Africa?

We don't.

It's not.

We eat spicy food. Curries are very popular, but we don't tend to cook it at home.

We tend to go out for that.

Yeah. Home. Homemade. But but you can buy all these things in the shops now. Ready made, can't you.

You can. We don't. Not in the same way that you would make it in India.

And, no, most people, if they're going to make a curry at home, they tend to buy it in a jar.

Yes. And, a curry sauce and add it to some to something. Yeah.

I suppose it would be fair to say.

It would be fair to say, Steve, that the, British taste is not always hot and spicy.

We do like our food mild and some might say a little bit bland.

But last night I made Mr. Duncan, one of our favourites, which is lentil dahl.

Yeah. Which is a light, very lightly spiced.

I had three types of lentils I put in there and, with onions and, tomatoes and put it in the slow cooker.

And then we just have it with some bread.

It was lovely. Mr. Duncan or rice. Sometimes we have it with rice. Yes.

Mr. Steve, we only have eight minutes. No, eight minutes to do what?

Well, we're going to play the game that we always play every single week.

It is the super game. A lot of people love playing this.

All you have to do is look at the picture.

And contained within that picture is a well-known phrase or idiom.

Yes, it is time to play guess the picture idiom.

If you could be,

it could be boo boo boo. Be.

Yes. The. Yes. The picture.

Guess the picture idiom.

That's all you have to do.

Guess the picture, guess the picture. It's, It's not annoying.

It's not annoying. What I just did there. I think it might be slightly annoying.

Sorry about that.

Here we go then. Oh, everyone loves this game, Mr. Steve.

Including you.

I have a feeling it is now time to play guess the picture idiom.

I will show you a picture on the screen, and all you have to do is tell me what that picture idiom is.

I think these are, quite easy this week.

I don't think they are difficult.

I think they might be quite easy. So here is the first one.

If you haven't

played before, I will give you some idea about how to play it.

So here is the first one.

I like this one.

Don't forget, I spend a lot of hours making these I don't use.

I it's all my own work. Where are you going, Steve?

I'm moving over because you like me to be visible.

That's it.

We like to see your lovely face.

You see?

That's why. Here we go.

The first picture idiom.

Oh. Oh, right. It's.

Ooh. By the way, do I like barbecue? Says Pedro.

Hello, Pedro. Yes.

Barbecue isn't something we do here.

It's something that you tend to do in the summer. Nice weather.

Which doesn't happen very often in the UK.

Go to your friend's house as a party. Everyone's outside as a barbecue.

Cooking, cooking sausages, all various types of meats.

The problem with barbecues is people always burn the food.

They think that barbecue is another word for burn.

You don't burn the food.

You are cooking it to a high temperature and that's it.

So the burning part is not part of the barbecue.

But I've been to many barbecues where they always think the food has to be burnt on the outside.

Yeah, because everyone's worried that if they don't burn it, someone's going to get food poisoning.

Because in the UK we tend to overcook everything, because we're fearful of getting,

food poisoning.

So particularly in barbecues, particularly if you're cooking a chicken, then and you've got guests,

you don't want to undercook the meat because you will be worried about giving people food poisoning.

So it always tends to come black.

It's always a bit disappointing, Bob. Yeah.

I don't think I've ever been to a barbecue where it's ever been done, but I could say to myself, oh, I really like that, because usually it's.

By the time you get it, it's in a burn. It's gone cold. Yeah. And it's burnt.

It's all just a bit disappointing. I'd rather just cook the meat in the oven.

It's like eating charcoal.

It's always a bit disappointing. Barbecue food to me.

My advice is don't do it.

Don't. Don't have a barbecue. Just just get some nice cold food.

Or maybe just use the oven in your kitchen like normal people.

Oh, Christine, I was first to come up with a suggestion. Christina. Thank you.

So thank you for that.

Can I say hello to appear? A bear?

Who asks, is there anyone from India?

We do have a lot of people watching in India, so a big hello to everyone watching in India at the moment.

Yes, maybe if you're from India, if you can tell us gram flour is that made from chickpeas or is it used to make naan bread?

Why do you keep banging Steve?

So please tell us.

Stop banging.

Or is it just used to make pop atoms?

Chickpea flour? Is that gram flour? And is it used to make pop domes and naan bread?

You are determined to find out later. Lasagne I am, I'm going to look at it.

I could look it up. I've got my phone here. I could Google it anyway. What's the answer, Mr.

Duncan?

The answer to the first, I guess, the picture idiom.

Now, I thought this was really easy.

I don't know, I thought this would be really easy, but at least.

Christina, you have your thinking hat on today because yes, it is.

Stick to your guns.

So you did see what it's happening there.

So you got guns and they're all sticky because someone has put glue on them.

You might stick to your to your guns, but it is a phrase that we use

quite often in English, a person who will not change their mind.

They might even be a person who is resilient in their decision about something.

Would you say, Steve, stick to your guns?

Yes, it means that you've made up your mind to do something and you're not going to change.

Even if other people.

Because if you believe something is right and you want to do it,

then you should stick to your guns because and not let other people persuade you one way or the other.

Because if you had an idea to do something, it's probably because inherently, you know, you can do it.

And, you shouldn't let other people put you off.

So if you're sticking to your guns, it means you're not giving up what you're doing.

A bit like Donald Trump and his tariffs. He's sticking to his guns. He's not giving up with them.

Is, a part is an answer.

So that's that's the first picture idiom. Here's another one.

This one's easy.

I think everyone is going to get this one.

I'm trying to make them easy.

Oh, this gun I'm not making them hard.

I'm trying to make them easy.

Trust me. Yes. Foetus. Yes. Foetus.

Be morally strong. Firm in your decisions.

Don't easily give up. Yes. Stick to your guns. Here we go, Steve. Here's another one.

This is the last one. Because we have to go. We always seem to run out of time.

There we go.

This is.

This is everyone.

This is very easy.

Is it? I'm.

I'm worried that Steve is looking confused.

I'm suddenly thinking, maybe this isn't easy, but I think this is an easy one.

Just.

Just say what you see.

Just say what you see. What is happening there?

What is that person doing?

I know what he's doing.

But when I think of the literal meaning of, or describe that, it doesn't come up with an idiom, oh, I see.

That tells us a lot about Mr.

Steve's brain today.

I think over a Q run over it.

Q okay, anyway, let's let's let the audience guess I'm trying to help them along because it's 4:00.

Oh, I say we do have a meal to prepare, by the way.

So as soon as this finishes today, we are both going into the kitchen and we are going to prepare the meal.

Mr. Steve has a little chicken that he wants to stuff.

We also might have some meat as well today.

Run around the clock, says Louis. Hello.

Okay. Yes

I mean definitely somebody is running around something.

Oh Beatrice.

That's quite that's a good guess Beatrice a good guess. There.

I gave away the fact that you could be right by the way I said oh Beatrice.

Yes, Steve.

Which you would never ever be able to play poker with anyone because everyone would always know if you had a good hand or a bad hand,

to be honest with you,

I think, I think this, I think this was quite easy.

So I was expecting everyone to get this right.

On the screen you can see the small shadow of the man he is jumping over

the letter

from the alphabet,

the letter Q?

Yes, the answer is.

Jump the queue.

You are literally jumping the queue to jump the queue.

This is something you should never do in England.

If you ever see a lot of people waiting for something, never jump in front, never jump in front of people.

It will cause fights, fights.

You never jump the queue. In the UK, yes, people will fight you.

They will. They.

It's like a fight to the death. Almost. Yes.

So there it is, a popular phrase.

If you jump the queue, it means you go ahead of everyone else who is waiting.

You jump the queue, maybe at a bus stop.

Yeah, maybe, at a at a at a popular, baker shop.

A sandwich shop.

So you can see what I've done there.

We have the letter Q and and the person is jumping over.

They are jumping on the queue.

Flower said, jump for joy. What jump for joy is an idiom.

That is a that is a well-known idiom.

And I can see why you why you said that and jump for joy just means that you're very happy and you're so happy.

You jump up and down.

But that's not the answer to this.

But that is an idiom. So, thank you for that suggestion.

I'm feeling as if I want to jump for joy because we have reached the end of today's live stream.

The two hours have have literally flown by.

They've gone by so quickly, and it is almost time for us to say goodbye.

I have enjoyed today's live stream.

Have you enjoyed it, Mr. Steve? I've. Course I have, Mr. Duncan.

But all this talk of food has made me very hungry because. Yes, well, you know what has to happen now.

We have to go into the kitchen to prepare the meal we have.

We have a little chicken that we're going to stuff and roast.

And I will be peeling potatoes, of course.

Of course I'm going to peel potatoes.

And Mr. Duncan will always peel far too many potatoes.

So Mr.

Duncan, but he looks at the potatoes in the saucepan and then adds another third.

And there's always far too many potatoes. I love potatoes,

what can I say?

I can't, I can't say anything else, but I love potatoes.

Before we. Sorry, before we cooked it, start cooking, I made.

Of course we will.

I made some hot cross bun a cake yesterday in the in the,

the bread maker.

So it's, it's got spices in it.

It's we have that hot cross buns have in them the loaf that Mr.

Steve made yesterday.

It's huge and it and we're going to have some of that as well. Before we start preparing the meal.

I think we will be eating a meal at around about 6:00 tonight.

Lovely to be here and, interact with you all will be lovely if we could see you.

But we can't.

But we can interact through the live chat, please.

Like Mr. Duncan's video today, if you haven't already.

It does help his channel enormously. If you just take that, like, button.

And it really would make Mr. Duncan a very happy man.

There it is. It's on the screen. So give me a lovely like. And also, don't forget to subscribe.

We have around 1000 new subscribers joining every day at the moment.

Yeah.

So if you like this and if you want to subscribe, please do both of those things.

It would be ever so nice.

We will see you next Sunday. Mr.. Steve.

I think I'm here next Sunday.

I'm sure I am. If I'm not, Mr.

Duncan will tell you in the week, then you can rejoice.

So if Mr. Steve isn't here next week,

that means he is not here. Bye, everyone.

Thank you.

Have a good week. Learning English are Mr. Duncan's English addict channel.

He can't wait.

He really?

You really want to get get into that kitchen? Don't you?

My stomach's rumbling, Mr. Duncan.

Mr. Steve is hungry.

See you next week, Mr.

Steve, I have

I don't think I've ever seen Steve.

So, so excited to get into the kitchen.

Lots and lots of food will be eaten today by us, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your Easter Sunday as well.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Enjoy the rest of whatever it is you are doing.

I hope you've had a good time. I hope it has been worthwhile.

If you want to watch this again, you can.

Later on there will be captions as well for you to watch

and also you can have your own subtitles in your language as well later on.

Thank you for watching.

See you soon.

This is Mr. Duncan. You know where I am.

I am in the birthplace of the English language.

You know where that is?

It is, of course, England saying. Thanks for watching.

I am back with you during the week.

I am with you on Wednesday.

Don't forget, also to look out.

Look out for.

New lessons.

There are lots and lots of new lessons posted on my YouTube channel.

Check those out as well. Thank you very much for watching. I'm going now.

See you soon and take care of yourself.

Whatever it is you are doing on this Easter Sunday.

And of course, you know what's coming next.

Yes, you do.

Take care.

See you on Wednesday. And.

Ta ta for now.