English Addict ep 329 - Sunday -🔴LIVE stream / 29th DECEMBER 2024 / Join the LIVE Chat & Learn

Technically, it is still Christmas.

So merry Christmas, everyone.

I hope you are having a good season of good will and kindness to all people around the world.

We are back together again, everyone. Are you excited? I really am.

Because it is Sunday afternoon.

Coming to you live and direct.

This is English addict from the birthplace of the English language.

You know where it is?

I know where it is.

We all know where it is.

It is, of course, England.

It is Christmas.

Honestly, it is still Christmas.

Technically, I suppose.

And of course, there are people who have not celebrated Christmas yet because they normally do it slightly later anyway.

Hi, everybody.

This is Mr. Duncan in England.

How are you today?

Are you okay?

I hope so.

Are you happy?

Are you feeling happy on this Sunday? I have to say, I am not feeling too bad.

I've had a lovely, relaxing break with Mr.

Steve.

We are feeling very happy, content

during this lovely festive season.

I hope you had a super duper Christmas.

Whatever you were doing, if you celebrate Christmas.

Of course not everyone does.

I'm always reminded that not everyone celebrates Christmas, but we had a lovely time.

Very relaxing.

We took it easy to take it easy is to relax.

You are relaxing yourself physically and of course also mentally as well.

I hope you have a nice time.

I am back.

For those who don't know who I am, my name is Duncan.

I talk about the English language.

I am one of those English addicts.

I'm also apparently

according to artificial intelligence.

I am also an influencer.

Between you and me, I don't particularly like the term influencer.

I always think it cheapens or lowers the standard of the person who does a particular type of thing.

Especially here on the internet, we often use the word influencer

when we are talking about a person who is popular on

some sort of social media platform.

In this case, of course it is YouTube.

It's lovely to be back with you again today.

So I don't think I am an influencer.

I have nothing to sell.

I have nothing really to offer.

However, I do love the English language and I do teach English and I like it very much.

I like both of those things, to be honest.

I like teaching and also I like English and I like teaching English.

That's it really, when you think about it.

So I hope you've had a nice break.

It's not been too bad, even though if you noticed, we were with you

on Christmas Day, we did spend a little bit of time with you on Christmas Day.

I hope you appreciate that and I hope you enjoyed it as well.

It was nice being with you

at what a lot of people, a lot of people say that this time of year it is festive.

A lot of people are doing things together.

Maybe families are joining up, people are getting together, friends are meeting up as well.

One of the things, and I'm going to speak very personally here, one of the things that always warms my heart

seriously now is when I see other people on social media meeting up with their family and friends.

I love looking at pictures of people having their family or friend reunions.

There is something really

touching, moving about that type of moment of time,

especially when you are able to capture it on video or through a photograph.

So I always love looking

at my followers photographs when they are having their reunions with friends, family, classmates.

It is always lovely to see that happening.

I suppose in a way it's

reinforces your your

feeling

of trust in the human race.

Let's face it, there are so many things around at the moment that kind of makers lose interest in humanity.

However, if you look at those small moments of time, real moments,

none of that fake stuff that the internet is now full of, I hate it.

One of the reasons why the internet might be a bad place is because there is so much fake nonsense on there.

So I do like seeing those human moments, those moments where friends and family are getting together and having a lovely time.

And what better time of the year to do it then? Christmas?

It is possibly the best time of year to have those reunions, or of course

during any festival, any festival, it can be any one of those festivals.

So we have Christmas, and I suppose many people are still having their holiday here in the UK.

Many people have not gone back to work. I always think

the period of time

between Christmas and the New Year is a very strange one.

It's almost as if everything stops existing.

It's like everyone goes into their own little world,

and then suddenly, when the new year arrives, suddenly everything suddenly goes back to normal.

Everyone has to go back to work.

Life returns to normal again.

It is nice to be with you today.

Of course, I suppose I should mention.

I should mention the person who is coming up today as well.

It is not just me.

We also have Mr. Steve.

He will be with us as well today.

And we are talking about lots of things.

We are talking about fashion,

especially at this time of year when many people are going to parties.

Quite often people will wear some very nice clothes, some clothing that is in fashion.

You might say that something is fashionable.

Of course, the word fashion can be used in many ways and we will be looking at that later on when Mr.

Steve joins us. I can't wait, I really can't wait.

And you don't have to wait very long because it's only 15 minutes from now.

That is all it is.

So I hope you will join us for Mr. Steve.

Can I say a big thank you?

Now, over Christmas, I received a lovely surprise.

Can I say thank you very much to Hiroko Turney for your lovely donation.

And I did receive it just before Christmas, but I didn't have a chance to check all of my emails.

And then I saw your notification for your lovely donation.

So can I say thank you very much to Hiroko Tani, who is at the moment living in Malaysia.

Thank you very much for your lovely donation.

It might be easy to forget just how important

it is to make those donations, so thank you very much for that.

And if you want to send a donation as well to help my work continue, there it is at the bottom of the screen, the address.

If you want to help my work continue. Everything I do, I do for free.

Nothing.

I don't ask you

to pay any sort of subscription.

I know a lot of people nowadays. They do.

They do ask for a subscription or sometimes they have certain conditions.

Sometimes they don't let you interact on the live chat unless you are subscribed, which means you have to pay to watch.

But this is all free. Everyone.

You don't have to pay anything at all.

Thank you very much for your donations.

If you want to give me a helping hand, it would be very much appreciated.

Don't forget next year I am entering my 19th year on YouTube.

I can't believe it.

So I suppose you might say there are only two years to wait before we have our 20th anniversary.

But that, unfortunately is still a very long way off.

Talking of which, 2025 is coming.

Are you excited about the New Year?

I'm just wondering now if you have any plans for next year,

because 2025 is just around the corner in fact, I can safely say that this is the last.

This is the final live stream

of 2024.

It is the last time that I can say

we are alive in 2024, because on Wednesday we have the 1st of January 2025.

I am wondering if you have any plans for next year?

The new year is approaching rapidly,

so do you have any plans for next year?

Talking of years, we will be taking a look later on at some of the things we did this year.

It was an exciting year for myself and Steve because we did a few things this year.

One thing in particular

involved you out there in YouTube land, so that is another thing we are talking about later.

So what about you? Do you have any plans?

Do you have any resolutions?

We often talk about resolutions, things that you plan

to do, something you plan to do in the future.

Normally within a particular period of time, for example, the new year.

So do you have any plans?

Do you have any

resolutions plans for the new year?

Please let me know on the live chat.

I will ask you again in a few moments.

Talking of the live chat. Hello.

It would not be English addict without you there watching.

Hello, Vytas...

You are first.

Do I need to say anything else?

Congratulations, Vytas.

Your finger is once again the fastest on the internet.

It really is.

And in second place, we have the one.

The only Luis Mendez

is here today.

Hello, Luis. Nice to see you here as well.

Also, Beatriz is here. Hello, Beatrice.

Are you excited?

The new year is approaching.

Do you have any plans?

Can you hear my stomach? By the way,

I have a confession to make.

I haven't eaten any food today.

I've had nothing to eat.

The reason being,

we've eaten so much food this week.

That is one of the things many people do during Christmas.

They always eat too much food.

And I can safely say my body at the moment is in a very strange state because I've eaten so much food.

If I ever see another piece of turkey ever again,

I think I will scream.

I don't know why.

Mr. Steve bought a huge turkey.

I don't think we realised

it was going to be so large to be honest, but it is a big one.

So what about you, Beatriz?

Are you looking forward to it?

Who else is here today?

Marut SEO. Hello to you as well.

Thank you very much for joining me.

And also we have. Who else is here?

Palmira is here.

We also have AC John. Hello. AC, John.

Nice to see you here today. Claudia is here.

Hello, Claudia.

Do you have any plans for 2025?

Right now, I am making plans for the new year.

During 2025.

That was my stomach.

Did you hear that?

I know it's not the nicest sound in the world, but that is my stomach complaining at the moment because it wants to eat something.

So, Claudia, do you have anything planned for the new year as the new year approaches?

Of course.

Many people also celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

So a lot of people will go to celebrate in certain places.

Of course, there are normally lots of fire work displays as well.

Many people will be doing that.

Hello, Marsha. Marsha.

Nice to see you here as well today.

Lots of lovely familiar faces and quite a few new ones as well.

Presenter. Hello, presenter.

Silver. Hello to you.

Thank you very much for joining me today. It's very nice to see you here as well.

Thank you very much. So Seka.

Santino. Hello, Santino.

Santino. Vani.

Nice to see you here. Thank you very much for joining me. Christina. Hello, Mr. Duncan.

Hello, Mr.. Steve, I can't stay today because I have some problems to solve.

Don't worry, because if you miss this, guess what?

You can watch it again later.

So do not worry if you have something more important to do.

I understand, so don't worry.

I'm, Hello? Mr. Duncan.

See you next time.

Oh, I see Amr is going already.

It was just fleeting.

There is a great word.

If you do something in a fleeting way, it means you do it briefly.

Fleeting.

Something will arrive and then go.

Some people say that life is fleeting.

Life can seem or feel fleeting.

It comes very quickly, and sometimes it feels as if it's going very quickly as well.

So even if you are staying for the whole live stream, or maybe you are only staying for a few minutes, do not worry.

I will see you next time. Alexander. Hello, Mr. Duncan, merry Christmas.

Don't you have a superstition that it is not a good idea to plan?

And especially to share plans?

Interesting.

Now, I have heard of this.

Some people don't like to make plans

to thoroughly.

If you do something thoroughly, it means you do it completely without any change.

So you are right.

I think some people do not like to make plans for the future.

And I suppose in a way I am one of those people.

So I don't normally make plans for the long term.

I do tend to make plans for just a few days ahead.

But I never think of the distant future.

I often make my plans over a short period.

Not long.

Although, having said that, sometimes it is a good way of planning your time

if you plan ahead into the future.

So I suppose.

Some people do and some people don't.

I am not very good at it.

Mr. Steve is very good at planning ahead.

I on the other hand, I'm not.

I am not very good at doing it.

Louis, my resolution for 2025

is to stay alive.

You know what?

That is a coincidence.

Because that is also my resolution for next year.

I always think it's a good idea to try and stay alive

for as long as you can,

and enjoy this thing

as much as you can.

That is my way of looking at things anyway.

Who else is here today?

Who else is here?

I don't want to forget anyone.

Alexander. Hello? Alexander. It's nice to see you here as well.

It's so lovely. Don't be shy. Say hi.

If it is your first time, please say hello, Mr. Duncan.

It is my first time on the live stream, so if you have any plans for next year, please let me know what they are.

I will be very interested to find out what you will be doing next year.

From my own point of view.

Next year will be busy 2025.

I will carry on doing this.

Of course I will be with you twice a week live.

There will be lots and lots of new English lessons as well.

So I promise there will be lots of those coming up during 2025.

My stomach

can hear my stomach.

It's really complaining.

I might have to eat something.

Whilst Mr. Steve is joining us.

I will have to eat something

so my stomach will not make a horrible sound.

During this live stream, I will try my best anyway.

We do have Steve coming up.

We are talking about fashion and we are talking about plans for the future.

We are also talking about.

How to live

longer.

Mr. Steve lights this particular subject, so I am doing it just for him.

So is there a way to stay alive for longer?

How to make your life longer? How to enjoy a long life?

We will be looking at that as well, because I know Mr.

Steve loves that subject very much.

We will take a quick break and then we will be back and we will talk about quite a few things.

You are.

Of course, you are welcome to join in on the live chat.

You don't have to ask if you want to say something on the live chat.

Feel free to do so.

Mr. Steve is on his way.

Do not go anywhere because we are going to have some fun.

I'm a big boy now.

We are live together today.

I hope you are having a good one.

Oh, we are here.

We are live and direct.

I am not the only person here, though.

After 2:30.

Everything changes.

It all becomes rather exciting because he is here.

The one, the only.

The man who has had a very nice rest this week.

Even though he has been keeping rather busy in the kitchen.

I am sure we will talk about that over the next hour and a half as I welcome.

I will welcome him now.

The one, the only.

Here he comes.

It is Mr. Steve.

Hello, beautiful, wonderful people across the world and will soon be entering a new year

with energy, enthusiasm, spirit and the desire to learn English.

Which is why you are all really here.

You're not here to see me smile at you and wink.

Oh. Mr. Duncan, you're here to learn English.

Yes. So, that's what we're all about.

So it's nice to be here, Mr.

Duncan.

Good. And, I've been reading, actually, people's,

New Year resolutions.

Oh, a lots of people have put a few of their New Year's resolutions on their.

And I'm quite interested with some of them.

Coherent is it?

Do you want me to mention these now, Mr. Duncan? No problem.

Like a hero or cheer hero?

Says that they want to live in the moment.

Now, that is something that I've been trying to do, haven't I, Mr. Duncan?

Definitely. For a long time.

Because it's so easy to be caught up in your own thoughts, in your head.

And you just sort of wander through life going from one thought to another,

fear of something,

arguments with other people, going over past things that happened a long time ago.

And you don't see what's actually happening right in front of your eyes. Yes.

And, some people say if you're feeling stressed, you're often read or go for a walk in the countryside.

But that's when I do that. Mr.. And Mr.

Duncan knows this full well.

I go for a walk in the countryside, and we live in the most beautiful countryside.

But unless you're in that present moment, you can be walking through these lovely forests,

climbing up these lovely hills, and you're in here

and not out there because your thoughts can still be going over and over and over.

Yeah.

And, so I think that's a very worthwhile New Year resolution, as they say.

Look around you.

Look around you as you go through life, because those things may only be there for a short time.

And if you don't look, if you close your eyes or look the other way, you will miss them.

Yeah. That's it.

And you will go on that nice long walk in the countryside. And you won't. You won't have.

You'll come back just to stress that when you went home, which is what often happens to me,

and I think, meditation is a good way of questioning the mind.

And a lot of you have, we've talked about this before, but if you can quieten your mind down,

then you can enjoy the present moment.

I think that's a way to do it. And connected with that. Build your build, J.

Not sure how to pronounce your name. Apologies if I've done it incorrectly.

Wants to learn more about philosophy.

And, Yeah.

Trying to think of concept and things outside what we're fixed into everyday, which is work.

Work.

You've got to earn money.

You've got to work 40 hours a week. You've got to pay your mortgage, you've got to do this.

You've got to do that things, doing things all the time. Yeah.

This can distract you away from thinking about

other sort of higher

concepts.

Yeah, well, if you think anything really, because, I think this is one of the criticisms of modern life.

A lot of people say that there isn't time to to think. There is always a new thing.

I was watching a very interesting video on the internet yesterday, and there was an art exhibition or it's still there.

It is still on show and it's a robot and it's just an arm,

a robot arm, and it's trying to clear

a pool of oil away on the floor.

But of course, as it does, it,

the oil goes back to where it was, and then the arm will change its direction and try in another area.

But of course, then the oil will come back and it just does that.

That's all it does.

And apparently this particular exhibition is a representation of all of our lives.

The futility.

Yeah, of any task at the end of the day, when all is said and done.

We are all doing things that are futile.

So this machine, this robot, it's a huge arm and it's constantly trying to clear the oil.

But of course it just comes back and that's it.

It's quite a pitiful thing to watch.

So I was watching it yesterday for a few minutes, and it did make me feel rather reflective, almost philosophical.

So you might say that particular thing is, is a comment on life and how sometimes we do things that are so futile

they lead to nothing because when it's, you know, this might get a bit controversial,

but we are sort of trapped in a way, in a sort of cycle of consumerism.

Yeah, that's what you're anything and any anything you do.

If you wake up in the morning, Steve, and you clean the floor in your kitchen, if you clean the kitchen floor, well, guess what?

You'll be doing it again the next day or a couple of days later.

So. Well, no, it's all right, Steve.

That's not you know.

Well, I'm not talking about as I'm talking about anyone. Steve. Please. Please stay on track.

I'm losing my, connection there.

So it's anything. Anything.

Anything that we do can be seen is futile.

Because, to be honest, you might even say that eating is futile because you have to cook a meal.

You eat the meal, and then the next day you poop it out.

And you have to then make another meal. It's a never ending cycle.

So this particular thing I just mentioned, this, this robot sculpture,

it is it is a great representation of of all of us, even if we know we are wasting our time.

Let's face it, we all spend lots of time now, don't we, Steve?

On the internet, looking at rubbish, watching videos, wasting our time.

The old brain rot which is wound up by, by news events.

Yes. Well, probably, you know, the media is

trying to distract you, is trying to set up fear and conflict in your mind.

Yeah, because it likes, as you said before, it wants.

It wants you to get angry.

It wants you to,

they like to exaggerate events and get you angry.

Get you making comments in, in social media posts because that's making money for somebody.

Well, there is a lot of money to be made in getting other people to react to things we haven't.

There is a there's a word for it now, especially Twitter.

I think Twitter is the worst place and it's called reaction farming.

And it's literally one person or a company.

And they will create lots of different accounts

and then they will just put stuff on all of these accounts that they know will get some sort of reaction.

And they put hundreds of new posts or new content every day, and then lots of people

around the world and we are talking hundreds of thousands of people will then react.

And because now on Twitter, you can earn revenue from the

reactions, then a lot of people are trying to

to get people to react normally with anger or frustration or even hate.

So it is happening a lot. But you are right, Steve.

This thing is a way of generating revenue on a huge scale.

So when I'm not talking about me as a YouTuber, I'm talking about people who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars

every month just from these posts that they put on to get lots and lots of people reacting and, and the more controversial,

the more hateful, the more hurtful those things, the more people will react.

Beatrice and, Claudia both mentioned this similar point that we need to pay attention to what

good things we have in our lives, and we need to be grateful for the good things that we have in our life, which I mean most.

You know, I mean, I get sort of stressed sometimes, Mr.

Duncan, about things, but then you just have to stop and think, well,

you know, life's not that bad.

You know, for me, really, but you can you can easily get stressed over things,

which in your mind can, over exaggerate problems that really don't exist in reality.

Your mind is so powerful.

And, whatever you think in your head, you,

even your body thinks it's actually happening, and it reacts to it by releasing all the stress hormones.

Yeah.

And you can end up living in a constant state of stress.

And we weren't designed to live like that.

We were only designed to be in a say to stress when, when we had to escape from a, you know, an animal coming to attack us. Yes.

But yes, it's so easy to get caught up in the,

world of materialism and, and, advertising and being convinced that you need to keep buying things.

I'd leave it there if I were you, because you're on a very dodgy ground. Well,

I'll explain later, but anyway. Yes.

Anyway, Steve, can we can we just.

We've got to move away from this.

2025 is coming, and a lot of people will have plans for the new year.

Lewis says, I want to stay alive.

Well, I think that's always a good one.

That that that's mine.

And I would imagine it's Mr. Steve's as well.

His plan for next year is to stay alive.

We had the most wonderful year.

As the year comes to an end, Mr. Steve.

I think it would be lovely to have a look at this year.

We have a lot of memories of 2024.

First of all, this year I celebrated 18 years on YouTube and we had a little celebration for that.

But at the beginning of the year, near the start of the new year, we arranged our lovely rendezvous.

Now we did it last year and we did it this year

and we had the most amazing time.

I'm going to show you what we were doing.

And there you can see. Well, there is me,

but there are lots of other people as well.

Some of our lovely

viewers, we had one of our super duper rendezvous and this year we decided to go to Rome.

We were in Italy, so we got together.

You can see Mauricio. You can see Cristina.

You can also see Beatrice waving.

And also Mr. Steve just behind me.

And we are in the middle of Rome.

We are

what we were at that time, doing a live stream from the centre of Rome.

So we did manage to meet up with a lot of people, didn't we, Steve?

We did. It was a lovely time, as it was the year before in Paris.

And, this is something that, Marcia mentioned on the live stream,

just that we need to be grateful, especially for friends, new friends that we've made.

And as a result of Mr.

Duncan's, English Addict channel, we have made lots of lovely new friends.

Last year and well over, over several years since the channel has begun.

But particularly when you meet up and see people in person.

It's very different to getting, messages on the live chat.

And it was fabulous.

And, hopefully we will see them all again, this year or next year, I should say, in 2025.

When we have, our next meetup, hopefully a lot of those people will be able to attend as well.

And, we stay in touch with the lots of people.

They stay in touch with us.

They come on the live streams and, if that's one thing to be grateful for, it's making lots of new friends. Yes.

And it's certainly something we've done here.

And we had a wonderful time. The weather was amazing.

I might even say, Steve, the weather was a little too good.

We had some very hot days, but we still managed to have a good time.

So there you can see myself. Who else is there, Steve?

I can't see the picture clearly here.

Oh, right.

That's Mauricio. I think there.

And also there is. I'm there. Francesca.

Francesca. Beatrice.

Christina.

Go on, go on, Mr.

Duncan.

And there's.

Mr.. Duncan, he's hiding at the back there. He's he's actually calling.

Test me on people's names, Mr. Duncan. It's about the worst thing you should do.

I will have to say, you know what?

I'm like with names. Scott.

That guy with the glasses right by the camera is. He's incredibly annoying.

We also did another time.

Sorry. Oh. Are you talking about yourself? Oh. What

the. Then there was, somebody else with glasses in the video there.

They could have been. Well, I said I said right in front of the camera.

Yes I do. Yeah that's fine. Okay. Yes.

That's a, that's another moment for the live stream that will Giovanni.

Of course.

Yes of course. Was there. Yes.

And Loretta there. Loretta.

All right. Are you sure you mean Loretta?

Loretta was wearing your, So, t shirt,

my t shirt addict t shirt, which was, quite a shock, because we we saw the t shirt before we met the person.

And though what happened.

Giovani came up behind me, and he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, we've been looking for you.

And it frightened the life out of me.

I think I'm still shaking now from it. Yes.

And it frightened the life out of me, to be honest. I will be honest with you. It did scare me.

Besides Rome, we also travelled around, didn't we, Steve?

We went somewhere else in Italy. And we.

We mentioned Christina, didn't we as well? Yes.

Yeah we did.

Yeah. I'm sorry Steve, I think I've mentioned everyone.

I'm sure if someone pivarnick Loretta.

Okay. Steve Riccio.

So we were in

San Jim Nino, which is in Tuscany.

We had the most amazing time there as well.

And we saw some, some wonderful shows take place.

There were some wonderful festivals that were being celebrated also at the same time.

It was the most amazing experience.

And I know you, Mr.

Steve.

You were especially affected by some of the moments of time, especially the music

that was being played during one of the festivals.

I was it's that time that San Giovanni outro, is it?

Mr.. Yes, I was just Florence there is. It sounds you mean now? That's right.

Yeah.

The music was they had a, medieval festival going on.

While we were there, which apparently they've been doing for, well I think it was over 30 years, maybe longer than that.

And they do have these in many parts of Italy.

But I found it very moving.

And spiritual experience.

And what I loved was the way that, the Italian people were celebrating their culture.

Yes, their history in a way that, we often forget here in the UK.

I don't think I've seen anything like that in the UK.

And all the, all the families were together from young to to the old, elderly, all out eating together in the streets,

enjoying the festival. Yes. So you can, you can see what fabulous you can see there.

We were actually broadcasting live and there were people walking around us.

And at one point we had lots of people queuing behind us to get into the ice cream shop,

and in the end, we were actually chatting to some of the people in the queue.

The other thing to mention is we were standing right in front of a condom machine, which is something I've never seen

in a public place.

And I, I always think and I think to this very day, how ironic that was when you think about it.

Mr.. Steve, it is ironic that there are machines like that

in Italy.

If you think about it carefully, it is a little odd, but also a good thing,

I suppose, as well, because those those Italians, Steve, you know what they're like.

They are they're very passionate.

They can be passionate at any moment.

At any moment that blood can rise.

And the passion. Okay, Mr. Duncan, that we need it. We here. I think we know what can happen.

No, I know that. Well, that's just a figure of speech for for becoming passionate.

Anyway, if you haven't seen that video,

it's still there.

Oh, Mr.

Duncan's, anyone that's new to this channel that hasn't, it isn't aware, that Mr.

Duncan has, you know, thousands probably of videos, but that one, if you look back this year, you'll be able to watch, Mr.

Duncan and myself live in Italy.

And that that particular one was, was very enjoyable.

And, yeah.

So we both work very well.

I have to say is, is it my imagination or do I look gorgeous?

Well, I wouldn't go that far, Mr. Duncan, I don't know. Well, let's just do it.

Let's just see, shall we?

I, I think I look quite well there, and Mr. Steve, you look very relaxed.

In fact, I think that's the most relaxed I've ever seen you in a very long time.

I certainly haven't been that relaxed for some time. No. Yes.

You certainly weren't that relaxed over Christmas.

No. Well this Christmas all right anyway. Yes.

Well yes, this Christmas.

But that's another story.

I've been trying to stay relaxed.

So a wonderful memory of the year, a wonderful moment of time.

And as I said earlier, there will be more of them happening in 2025 because we have the rendezvous coming up.

We are going to be in Paris next year.

We have Paris, and maybe if we have enough time and if Mr.

Steve doesn't spend all of his money, we we might go somewhere else as well.

So there might be two possibilities. Really.

Well, I've mentioned this to you already on the live stream.

I, well, that's news to me, but it's great news I did.

I have mentioned that I have, but yeah. Yeah, we will be.

We've got to get these dates nailed down. Yes we will, we will do.

That's one of the first things we have to do in the new year is arrange the trip, get the rendezvous

for 2025 up and running, and we will be doing that.

So there might be two chances, two opportunities for you to meet us.

If you can't make it, make it to Paris.

There might be another location coming up as well.

But yes, we will have to sort that out. How about the North Pole?

That would be interesting.

Yeah. So Paris and then the other ones, the North Pole. Yeah. So we're testing you.

Are you really committed to to meat eating is in 2025.

Actually the Antarctic is more difficult than the North Pole.

So maybe we should choose that one.

Well, the Antarctic is too far away, I guess.

I don't I don't even know how you get there.

How would you get it? Now, this is a serious question.

How do you get to the North Pole?

Because I would imagine there are not many airports in the North Pole or Antarctica.

So I would imagine there aren't many places to land.

So I would imagine the only way is by boat.

So you would have to take a slow boat. Well, I think you have so far.

And then you have to take one of these, these see these special planes, or a helicopter.

But when you see programmes about the research stations, on the North Pole, they're usually flying in these sort of

turboprop aeroplanes.

But but most, most of the time, though, it's by boat.

And so you can get all the way to the North Pole in a boat because it's frozen solid.

Yes. Well, but there are ships that can do it.

There are navigation ships

that there have a special design and they can they can plough into, but they can only they can't go all the way.

Then they can go all the way to the North Pole in a boat. Okay then.

Well then you can only go so far.

Okay. Mr..

Steve, you have to take a plane the rest of the way, okay?

Or do it by foot.

Yes, well that's it.

Well, of course it may be some sort of motorised vehicle that will take you across the snow like one of those James Bond bikes.

Maybe we'll just go to Iceland. That that'd be easier.

You know what I that really does sound like too much of a job.

To be honest, I don't. I think we might just stay with somewhere sunny.

To be honest with you, I don't think it's going to be anywhere cold.

First of all, I would never go anywhere that was cold.

I'm not a big fan of snow or ice.

I like to watch it, but I don't like to spend too much time out in it.

So I definitely wouldn't want to go to a place that was covered in snow or very, very cold.

So I think it is safe to say

that the rendezvous in

2025, besides Paris, the other place will also be nice, nice and warm as well.

I hope.

Mr. Steve,

what a year it has been.

Yes, it's been a great year. As you say.

We had the lovely meet up in Italy.

And we're looking forward to this year in Paris and wherever the other mystery destination is, which is something next year.

I didn't know that.

No. But yeah, it's. But what else?

What else is being good about this year, Mr. Duncan?

Well, of course, of course.

We've been very busy making new lessons. It's been.

I think it's worth being one of the busiest years for me, for doing my live streams,

but also making new content over the past, certainly from the end of September.

I've been working every day to produce new content.

And and there is a lot of new content on my YouTube channel.

So I would say safely that this year has been a busy one.

We've had some fun, but also I've been doing a lot of work and that will continue, by the way,

in 2025, all of this will carry on twice a week.

The live streams and lots and lots of new lessons as well.

The live chat, by the way, is very, very busy today. Very busy.

We have a lot of

people talking on the live chat and of course excited because

2025 is coming.

I was going to mention some going back to New Year resolutions or New Year's resolutions, you can say both ways.

I believe we've said this in the past.

Marcia, mentioned earlier and I've just remembered that she said quite some time ago

that she has New Year resolutions, but she doesn't want to talk about them.

Now, I think I know the reason why.

Because sometimes if you there is some idea or philosophy that if you reveal to everybody what you're going to do, you

somehow the energy is dissipated and you won't actually achieve it because you've told everybody so best to keep them.

I think. Is that why, Marcia, you didn't want to tell us?

Because

if you don't tell us, or maybe you don't want to tell us, because then you can say, oh, that was my New Year's resolution.

Look, it's worked.

But I think actually, I think the reason could be that there is this belief or idea

that if you share what you're going to do, then the energy is lost behind you actually achieving it.

It's almost a spiritual thing. Yeah.

So it's better to keep it to yourself, and then, quietly achieve it and then you inside your head, you that that will become reality.

That thought process will will manifest into into reality.

That's a good word if it's kept manifest. Yeah. That's a good word for you.

Something will manifest itself.

It appears to be is the appearance of something. It will manifest.

It always reminds me

of one of the funniest videos ever.

Not fake, not staged.

And it goes back many, many years.

I think it's the the, I want to say the early 1980s.

It might even be the late 1970s, a guy being arrested in Australia

for trying to steal food or get a free meal in a restaurant.

Unfortunately, it was mistaken identity.

However, the whole thing was filmed.

It was captured by by an Australian news service and it is to this date

the funniest thing you've ever seen because the guy being arrested comes out with some of the funniest

lines, the funniest things, the funniest thoughts

that a human being could actually say to anyone.

And this is all being captured on camera by by a news team.

And the reason why I mention that were the words you just mentioned, Mr.

Steve, is because democracy, democracy

is what is being shown in that video, and that is what he says.

You see, that is what he said about it.

And it's it's a it's a video that a lot of people have watched and it's all over the place.

It's all over the place. Democracy manifest.

If you look that up on the internet, this guy will be there and it is the funniest thing you've ever seen.

Not only that, he also uses the phrase to tar

right as I do to tar for now, and he was using it many years ago, so democracy manifest

man being arrested. What?

What's his, what's the gist of what he's saying?

Well, some of it I can't even say.

The word jest, of course.

Means what what what's the essence? Yeah.

What is that person trying to communicate in in a Majesty's is is is as an idea

or concept or a belief, or a meaning said in a short number of words.

Give me the gist of it.

If you say that to somebody, give me the gist of it.

It means just give me the shortened version of it, the meaning. So it's hoping.

Of course, Winston Churchill famously said that, democracy is is, I'm paraphrasing here, democracy is a dreadful system.

Yeah, but it's the it's the best that we've got. Yes.

It's the best of all the others. Yes, it is the best of the worst.

It's the it's better than all the rest.

It's awful. But it's better than all the rest.

But at least.

But it would be right if you get a chance to see that democracy manifest is the name of the video, and it's all over the place.

Sadly, the he actually died this year, the man being arrested, and he became this international star

just because of this short video, this short film of him being arrested.

But the things he says are hilarious.

He was enjoying a meal, a succulent Chinese meal.

That is one of the things he says.

By the way, I was just caught a man sit and enjoy a meal, a succulent Chinese meal.

But the way he says it and he says other things as well that I can't repeat.

But if you if you look at

democracy manifest or the man who said it, it is there all over the internet.

It is literally everywhere.

And it is one of the most famous video clips from before the internet.

So even way back in the 1980s, it was considered a meme.

Before the internet became popular.

2025 is on its way.

Hi Mr. Steve, I can't believe time.

Have you noticed, Steve, how fast time seems to go?

Yes. If you're, If you're busy, time goes quickly, doesn't it,

that people often say this, if you or if you haven't got much to do, time goes very slowly.

Or if what you're doing is boring and uninteresting.

So I would imagine time for most people watching is right now on this live stream

is going at the fastest rate they've ever known it, because it's so interesting and engaging because it it's so exciting.

I hope something I'm joking. Well, I do get lots of people saying that.

They say we can't believe your show is two hours long, but when we watch it, it seems to be over very quickly.

So it is.

Yes, you might actually be right there. You see, you might actually be right.

But I'm also talking about life as well, Mr.

Steve.

Life itself, it does seem sometimes as if time,

as in

our existence, seems to go by very quickly.

I can't believe in 2025 I am going to be 60.

I can't believe it. It doesn't seem real.

And I I'm going to be honest.

You know, I always like to be honest. I tell you everything here.

I have developed a slight problem with my next birthday.

I don't know why I feel if I think about it for too long and I'm not I'm not joking here.

If I think about it too long, I actually become quite anxious about it because it seems unreal.

It seems quite unreal that I am going to be that age, because I remember my grandparents

being in their 60s when I was growing up, and back then I thought they

were old.

It does seem strange, isn't it?

Because when you're very young, everyone else seems to be really old and you forget that you yourself will one day be that old.

So it is.

It is something I really. I'm not coping with it very well.

Mr. Steve, I have to say, I'm not looking forward to my next birthday.

If I. If I was honest with you,

maybe you don't look it. Oh.

As, Marty has commented,

or maybe you do, but I'm not on the live stream because of course, we have light

shining, ironing out all the creases.

It is true in our faces.

So this is why everyone looks great in TV studio until TV studios, people always look amazing.

But then when you see them outside in natural light, it's almost as if they've aged by about 30 years.

You wouldn't believe the strength of the lights in this studio.

I mean, I really should. I'm probably getting cataracts. Yes. No.

I'm joking.

Actually.

And of course, what you see now on, on a lot of our news channels,

is if they're interviewing people

because in the old days, people always came into the studios to be interviewed.

Yeah. But now, of course, they use zoom or whatever technology.

And people can be sitting at home, somebody they want to interview.

And you, you know, they're they are on a separate screen and they're using all these beauty filters, to make themselves look,

much younger than they are. And of course, sometimes it just looks ridiculous.

Sometimes people have got these little

because you can there are settings out there on zoom, and yes, you can, you can, you can turn the beauty filter up.

That's it.

And as you do it, it will artificially smooth your skin.

It will almost damage you in the very face. It.

It's a very crude way of doing it. Do you any of you watching?

If you're doing zoom calls for work or teams or whatever system you've got there,

do you use the beauty filter, to, just smooth your face out a bit and take a few years off?

I think

I think a lot of people do, but thank you very much, by the way, for your lovely compliments.

Thank you. Beatrice, that is lovely. How kind of you.

You both don't look your age, even though Mr.

Steve is older than me.

Yes, it's true, but how do you see there's a big difference.

There is your, biological age. Yes.

And then there is your chronological age.

What about your psychological age?

I think there's that as well. Yeah, I think mine is about six.

But you can have test, you see.

I mean, I mean, I'm, I've had a few, actually three, as most people know.

So that's my chronological age old.

Are you 63, as you well know?

That's my chronological age.

The, you know, the actual specific age as measured in time.

But my biological age, you see, if I haven't looked after myself, if I've drunk and smoked all my life

and then not taken any exercise, then my biological age as as is measured in my,

the, my in, you know, my body itself, my heart learns, that could be actually older, a lot older than that.

You could have some people who've really looked after themselves.

Could be 80, could have a lower blood pressure than me, could have a better heart and lung function, and biologically,

they could be younger than me if I hadn't looked after myself.

So there is this difference that can be measured.

You can have various tests done, to determine your

biological age.

And that's actually more relevant in terms of how long you're going to live than your chronological age.

And talking about New Year resolutions, I read today.

An interesting fact about it.

I think it's facts. You keep saying facts, I say facts. But do you know I'm reading these off the internet?

Take them. Take them with a pinch of salt. Well, doc, you know, doctors have determined that every.

You've heard of pessimists and optimists. Yes.

My, I know one of them.

My father always said to me, I always remember it's one of the few things I remember my father saying to me.

I think I was about 7 or 8 at the time.

And he said, you're a pessimist,

which is probably not a good thing to say to somebody when when they're very young.

I think I got that of my mother, but, are you, though?

I think I am, yes, I, I think I am a pessimist.

But I'm not a complete pessimist, but I'm sort of, by the way,

pessimist, an optimist.

But anyway. Well, then, Steve, but I was reading Steve.

Well,

a pessimist is a person who always looks on the back on the down side, always thinks things are going to go wrong, always negative.

Sorry, I yeah, that's a good point.

And an optimist always thinks things are going to go right.

And anyway, I had some,

doctors have determined that, if you,

optimistic, then you are likely to live 8 to 10 years longer.

Okay? Someone who is a pessimist.

That doesn't sound like much.

Well, it's quite a lot, really. Eight years.

Well, 8 to 10 years. That's a hell of a lot.

If you said 31, it's.

That seems like a lot of work.

Yeah, but if you if I was to tell you you're going to drop dead at 70 if you're a pessimist.

But you were going elevator eight.

If you're an optimist, you'd probably quite welcome those extra ten years.

But I would I would especially welcome

an extra 30 years.

Well, well that's it. Well you can get another ten years by being fit and healthy.

You know, from a physical point of view, it's still quite a good because I think the probably the reason,

I mean, I used to have somebody at work, I knew somebody at work was always miserable.

This is a previous job when I was in my early 20s.

Had quite a profound, I wouldn't say influence, but I always remember what he said.

He said I always he was always miserable.

He said my philosophy in life is to always think everything's going to go wrong.

And then when it goes right, I'm pleasantly surprised.

And, that might still be a pessimist, but that's that's a pessimistic outlook on life.

Yeah.

But, what it does, I think, to

your body is if you always think things are going to go wrong, you know, you're constantly in a state of stress, in fear.

So you're sending your body's producing all these stress hormones which make you sick in the long, in the long run.

So of course you can be

too optimistic.

Always think and we all know people who are too optimistic, they always think

things are going to go right and, and thus they don't really plan for anything going wrong.

And then their lives can become very complicated when that happens.

And that's why you have to have some sort of balance.

Balance so you can be you can be pessimistic and, and assume life is awful or you can be too optimistic, happy go lucky.

And then maybe as you go through life, you might actually come across more bad experiences because you are not being careful.

You have to have some forethought about what could go wrong in in certain situations.

I mean, if you've got no control over something, then it's probably the things that you can control, like for example, your car.

I mean, get it maintained because you could break down and then a lorry could hit you and you could die.

I mean, that's something you can control. Yeah.

But the things that you can't control, and there's lots of things in life we can't control.

You might as well be optimistic, because it probably will go right.

Most things in life do go right in the end.

So why all that? Why worry all the time about things you can't control?

Because, you might as well just.

If you can't control it, it's no point of getting down about it because you're just going to make yourself miserable and unhealthy.

That's it.

I think we understand what you. It's easier said than done.

That's it for us. Yes. Well.

Well it is and I think if you, if you look on the, on the dark side of things,

the negative side all the time, then all you are going to find is negativity.

And that's, that's the thing sometimes in life you have to take things as they can

and only worry about the things you can change.

Don't worry about the things you can't change.

People come along and they go,

so if someone in your life is is causing problems, you can always turn around and go in a different direction.

You don't have to take all of the negatives things.

Sometimes you can you can make your own choices, can't you? Steve?

You can. I think the the, I've been reading a lot about this recently.

And, you know, I think, the, the, the problem is, if you are in a constant state of stress and negativity,

it really and your thoughts of your negative thoughts, it really does affect your health.

And that's this is something I want to and that's connected with, what,

Carrero said about a New Year's resolution about living in the present.

You can't always be in this analytical mind thinking, thinking, thinking all the time.

It just creates stress.

I've got to let that go and, and just sort of enjoy life a bit. Yes.

Just be happy coming from you, by the way. That's that.

That is quite reassuring coming from you.

Yeah, I know that. That's what I want to do. To shift the balance.

Because there's no doubt that that negative thinking and pessimistic thinking has a, has a detrimental effect on your health.

Yes, but it's almost in the long term this this almost ties in with what I want to talk about today.

And we've almost talked about the subjects before I've even introduced it.

So it is that secret that way.

How do you ensure that that you stay healthy.

And you I suppose you live for as long as you can.

I think it is always an interesting question at at this time of year, and I don't think it's just me, but I think at this time of year,

lots of people do start to reflect on their lives, or maybe the time they've spent during the past 12 months.

Did I use that time well?

Did I waste time?

Did I spend too much time giving myself brain rot by looking at the internet and watching all sorts of rubbish?

Yes, and getting agitated and angry over things?

This is it. I did a lot of that last year

going on news channels and, and,

and there's an article which I can see now was deliberately designed to make me get angry.

And then you then there's always a comment section.

Everyone's writing these comments and they're often abusive towards other people. Yes.

And then I get involved in it. Yes.

And suddenly your whole mood is then affected.

This is what we said earlier about things that are focussed towards us

now, aiming for certain types of personality or even our own psychology.

And those things normally are topics or subjects or things that might cause us to be upset, worried, fearful, angry,

to to feel despair.

So all of those things are aimed at us, so we will react to it in some way.

Quite often these things will be will be quite negative.

As I've said before, the worst place right now in the world is Twitter.

I know what you're going to say.

It is not X, it is Twitter because everyone calls it that.

It is the worst place right now for all sorts of misinformation,

or maybe just trying to get as much negative reaction to things as possible.

The worst thing that happened to Twitter

is when it became heavily monetised, and now lots and lots of people are producing multiple accounts.

And this is this is what's happening, Steve.

We're not talking about a few dollars each month.

Some of these people are earning 3 or $400,000 every month.

Maybe I should be doing it, but that's exploitation.

You do need you do you do you need about 20 computers?

You need to spend a lot of time program these computers.

A lot of it is done automatically.

So they don't even have to keep putting this stuff in.

You can actually set your your Twitter account or your feed to put these things out automatically.

And they often go in a cycle over several months, so you don't even realise that you're looking at the same thing again and again.

And that is the big problem, because the more money you can make from it, the more people will do it.

And the only way you can really go with the quality of the content is down.

We will see a lot of that in 2025.

I think Christina Bourne puts a very, a good quote from Winston Churchill on the live chat in capitals.

So we know it's a profound.

By the

way, I've got a friend called Chris Bourne, a man short for Christopher.

So whenever I see your name, I think for a moment I've got it.

My, my my friend Chris Bowen is coming on.

Pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.

The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

And the the I mean, they're almost both

the same. Both, the two sides of the same coin.

I, sometimes if you if if an opportunity presents itself, that is difficult.

There is always there opposite to that somewhere.

And, maybe in the way that you think they can, you know, manifest the opposite, I think

I think it is possible to be too optimistic, just like it is to you.

It is a bank thing to be too open minded.

So we often talk about being open minded, being accepting.

However, you must always keep your brain in place.

Don't be so open minded where your brain falls out and then you stop thinking completely.

So Lewis says this.

It's, if you're always optimistic or always pessimistic, if you're always on one side or the other, that's that.

That's almost that's like a pathology.

You can't always be pessimistic because you'll always be down.

You can't always be optimistic because you know you're not living in reality well.

You aren't living in reality at both extremes.

Yes, because most of the time things do tend to go right, because you always put some effort into it.

So if there's a problem somewhere that needs solving, then you will put effort into that to try and solve it. Yes.

And most of the time it probably will go right because you will make an effort to make it right.

Yeah, it is, it will. It's almost a cycle in a way. Sometimes. Sometimes.

And this is this is a thing that I've mentioned over the last few months because I have my ups

and my downs when it comes to this YouTube.

So sometimes things will be good, but then things will be bad, and it is all

about things around me that they can't control.

I think you're right, Mr. Duncan. The cycles. Yes, cycles. So?

So it is like that. Everything.

Everything is this and then that and then that.

And then sometimes it is just that, straight and smooth.

But then there'll be another problem and then a little bit of smooth road

and then maybe another dip that you go down into and then that's it.

That's it. You see that is life. That is what you learn as you get older.

I always say that education gives you information, but life

gives you experience.

And you can only gain that by living, by going through life.

This is why I always say there is there is no such thing.

Is bad experience.

All experience in your life is experience for the future.

It allows you to learn.

You have to have bad moments.

You have to have sometimes failure.

Sometimes things don't go right and that's how you learn. You move on.

So education gives you information, but there is no there is no substitute for the experience of life.

And that is something you slowly gain as you get older, which is why we value the input of, of some of our more senior, viewers.

On, on the live chat,

because we are getting advice, bored out of, of years of experience.

And, it's something that a lot of people seem to forget these days when we're living in this sort of,

oh, I don't want to say fast paced world. That sounds so old fashioned.

Yeah, well, when we say that, I think what happens now is, is with every, every generation that grows up and gets older,

there are always new generations coming along.

And maybe, maybe one of the problems is we we have this certainly for younger people, we have an instant gratification

where the thing you want must be available straight away.

It must be something that you you get straight away.

You don't want to wait for it.

You don't want to to save money for ten years so you can buy it.

You want it not where you want that thrill, that moment of pleasure straight away.

And I think that's one of the things that that younger people might actually suffer from this feeling of needing instant gratification.

You need to get the thing straight away without waiting.

You're expecting life to always go your way.

And I think, as I mentioned earlier, Steve, as you get older, you realise that quite often things do not go your way.

It is the first lesson that we all have to learn when we're young.

So. And yet if I was watching, I like watching motivational videos.

And I watched what now a lot of a lot of you will, probably criticise me for, for this, but I watched it.

Yeah, I watched a video, of Donald Trump giving a lecture on success and how he became successful and

I saw another side to that person when I watched this video.

It was actually quite profound what he was saying.

And, he's, you know, he was doing it from the heart.

You could tell he really meant what he was saying.

And, I forgotten the point I was going to make that he said, oh, yeah.

One of the things he said is that, you know, no one is ever successful.

Unless

unless they make mistakes, which is what we're China, which is what you're mentioning there and what Lewis has mentioned as well,

you can only learn from experience, and you learn the most quite often from mistakes, things that have gone wrong.

So if you never have mistakes, it means you're never going to progress, and you're never going to learn anything.

The other thing he said, was, never give up, okay?

Never give up. That's something you want to do and you like doing and you love it.

Never give up.

Okay, so remember that everyone

you just watched that you'll see if a woman says no, never give up.

Yeah, well, yeah.

Good, good good. Steve I think well, I think I think using Donald Trump is the example.

I'm not talking about how that, I'm talking about business, you know, building a business, doing something you love.

I'm not talking about

that, Mr.

Duncan, but but that would be what he was talking about in relation to business.

But that would be the same train of of of behaviour.

You see. So.

But but all successful people anyway, all successful people, Bill gates, Steve Jobs,

even Elon Musk, who seems to have had a slight breakdown over the past 2 to 3 months.

So everyone, everyone who's successful, has that kind of mindset.

Yeah. You've got to. Yes,

you've got to have that mindset.

Otherwise you you know, you'll give up and somebody else will.

Somebody else will will take it up.

Whatever.

That idea you had, I was reading something about,

who is it that

Bezos isn't it is, is, has the, got Amazon going?

Wasn't it? That's his company. Jeff Bezos, not anymore though.

No. That's it.

But but anyway, he was talking about how he became successful and he nearly didn't do it.

He actually wanted people to help invest. He was selling books.

On he got this idea of selling books on the internet in his garage.

That's how he started doing it. And,

many, many people, he's got a good job working somewhere.

And he said to somebody at work, I want to do this.

And his boss said, oh, you, are you mad?

You must be nuts.

You've got a great job here, a good career, you know.

Why give that all up for some idea that might not happen.

But he made the choice to give it a go.

And, you know, now I can sit at home and not have to go to the shops.

I can order everything online. So thank goodness he did do it. Well, if he hadn't done it, somebody else would have done.

Because these ideas are all out there, aren't they?

There's this theory that all these possibilities are all out there in the aether, in the universe, in the matrix or whatever, I believe.

And, somebody is going to pick that idea up and, so, yeah, there you go.

But we can also thank him for, for all of the empty streets

that were around on Boxing Day when no one, not a single person, went into most of the shops around the UK? Yes.

Could they've worked either sit it out with a few clicks they've got with them, all this leading to an

to a sinking and sales and retail sector in the UK.

Although she

thanks Jeff, they've brought a lot of that upon themselves.

Thanks anyway.

We're not debating it, I'm just saying but but at us listening charges and let's Steve let's not pretend.

Let's not pretend that being able to sit at home and click on things and pay for them and have them delivered to your house is not

part of the problem. Wonderful. And no, it's wonderful.

Jeff Bezos is my hero. Okay.

And, and and apparently Donald Trump is. Well, well, I wouldn't go that far.

I would just, you know, I just I think I'd rather just taken it at face value.

I wasn't judging him. I was just judging the content as I read it.

As I listen to it, sometimes you've got to be you've got to let your prejudices, prejudices, and you've got to put your prejudices aside.

Okay.

And and just, almost, almost like the person you just mentioned.

He should also probably did the same thing.

Yeah, but he doesn't. Who who are you talking about?

The person you've just been to.

Yeah, yeah.

So anyway, anyway, look, we're not going to get into a Trump debate.

Oh no we're not I didn't I didn't bring him up.

I just I just want to I just want to keep my viewers, you see because I thought conflict was good for, for for getting clicks.

No, no, not an English teaching channel.

When the.

This is this isn't one of those, reactionary podcasts.

Necessary. No. Divide and rule.

It's worked for thousands of years.

Yes, well, I suppose there's always been an element of that.

If you go back to Roman times, it was all manipulated religion and the gods and and politics

and and bringing people with different beliefs together is what the Romans did.

And it was used as a form of control.

So you can see how far back we are going. Mr.. Steve.

It's always it's always happened. This is not a new thing.

It ain't even true.

It is easy to control people when you give them what they want, and also you give them something to fight against.

Those two things are incredibly powerful in the human mind.

They really are, and they can get you to do all sorts of crazy stuff, put you in a state of fear.

Yeah.

And, and then you start,

you start doing some strange things when you're in a state of fear, you, you, you, your critical thinking mind is cut off. Yes.

And so you're easily manipulated.

Anyway, we're getting quite,

But it's not.

This isn't political. This is this is almost going back to what I was talking about earlier.

About about life making choices, the way you see things, where whether you are optimistic.

But I think most successful people.

So we're taking all of the names out of the subject.

Anyone successful normally has a particular type of mindset, but also successful.

Okay. We're all alive. We're all here. We're all enjoying ourselves.

Well, I'm sure, I'm sure the people sleeping in the doorway tonight in the freezing cold weather might disagree.

Yes. Christina says.

Christina says, you can't all be mega successful. And that's true.

We can't be can't all be billionaires. Well, we're not, we're not, we're not all built like that.

No, no, we can't all be billionaires.

I mean that I should be I should be flying around now in my own private jet if I, if I really was that successful.

But I have to accept that I'm not successful.

I have to accept my put my place in life.

That is my style.

That is what I have.

And guess what? I'm ever so happy because of it. Christina.

As a result, Irina says here that, in my city they say those who do not have courage do not sleep with beautiful women.

Well, that's true.

I mean, we all know in the world of dating, you've got to be you've got to be confident, haven't you?

You've got to exude confidence.

People are attracted to other people who are confident.

Even if you don't have, good looks.

If you some people just exude don't they, positivity and confidence,

then their manner, the way they talk, the way they look at you and those people are attractive.

So if you can be like that and, you know, exude there's a word for you and that we've used that on the live stream before.

If you exude something, it means it's there, you can see it, it's obvious it's coming out of you.

Yes. It's it's actually directional.

So exude is is the almost like a, like a radio transmitter.

It is coming off.

So a person might have a certain type of personality that is attractive.

And you all right, Steve.

That's exactly what what you're doing.

You're giving off those those small things.

That's why some people are attractive and some people are not.

There are various reasons, but trust me, I, I definitely don't want to get into this subject.

Which we might be treading on lots of toes.

Let's just say, Mr.

Steve, can you believe it's only 26 minutes before the end of the show?

Oh yes. I can't believe it. In fact, it's more. It's. No, it's 23.

We've been rabbiting away.

We've been talking so much today.

If you rabbit away, it means you just talk like that.

They did the the rabbiting away.

And the impression is the, the, expression is, is really giving the indication that you're not talking anything of any real important.

So substance. That's about right, I think.

But I hope that we have been talking about something that you find interesting,

because at this time of the year, you, you we all we do this every year.

We think, you know, what do we do?

The years gone by, we reflect on the last year and then we then we think about what do I want to do next year to make my life better?

And we've got this time off at Christmas. A lot of us have a week off around Christmas time.

It's quite common for people to have quite a long spell off between Christmas and New Year.

A lot of businesses shut down, civil servants, government also shuts down.

So a lot of us have this time to sit and think, what do I want to do for next year?

So you perform all these lovely plans and then before you know it, you're back on the treadmill and you forget all those things,

all that optimistic,

oh, thoughts about what you were going to do.

I think we're getting the gist. And, you soon fall back into the old patterns.

But is this going to be the year when you stick to your guns?

Well, and do what you say you you want to do?

All I know is, is it the moment I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio at the end of Titanic, I've fallen into the water.

I can see there is a little bit of the wreckage of the boat in front of me, so I'm holding on to it.

So this is the stage of my life now.

This is this is how how I'm viewing 2025.

This is now me holding on

with my fingers gripping as tightly as I can.

That's a very pessimistic out there.

It isn't, it is, it isn't. It's realistic.

It's pessimistic. There is a difference between pessimism and realism.

So I'm not realising.

But you create your own reality. You see, Steve, I don't want to say it, but I'm going to

Steve.

I just feel as if there is a point that I'm coming to and you can't help feeling it.

I can't help what's going on inside this, this lump of clay inside my skull.

So I don't feel very happy about reaching.

To be honest, I don't. I don't like it.

I'm not joking. It's been causing me actual anxiety.

I've been feeling really anxious about it.

I don't want I don't want to be. I don't want piece.

I'll help you through it, Mr. Duncan.

I hope so, maybe alcohol and chocolate. Well. No joking.

Well, look, I know that. Don't give me that advice. I will take it.

That's why I've been doing that all week.

By the way, maybe we should grow certain plants in the garden, you know, with with.

And then we could harvest that plant, dry it, and maybe add.

And I smoke it or put it in a cake, and maybe that's the time

I'm choking. I'm choking.

Of course I'm okay. We're not going to be we're not going to be doing any of that now.

Maybe 2025 will be the year Mr. Steve gets my YouTube channel taken off me.

Maybe that will happen next year.

It's it seems to be getting closer and closer, you know, clinging on. Mr.

Duncan, you are 60 is nothing. I'm going down with the wreckage.

60 is nothing. I'm holding onto the back of the boat.

And then when you think, actually, a lot can be done in five years, that's an own.

I mean, you should in you should actually, if you look at what your parents and, your grandparents, they will live to quite a good age.

Given the last eight, the last eight, 7 or 8 years.

My mum's life was spent not knowing who she was and where she was.

So this is.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean that's going to happen to you.

I think it's sort of mother has specific health, issues.

I'm salivating a lot, which led to that. Steve, you've got to listen to to this.

I'm salivating a lot.

What does that mean? That is an early sign.

You have to know that, stuff.

That's an early sign of dementia. Did you know that? Where did you read that?

Where did I read it?

A medical journal, talking about the very early signs.

Probably one of them is. Is your mouth waters a lot?

You produce, you overproduce saliva before any of the other signs of appeared.

And I noticed the other day I was in the garden filming, and my mouth kept filling it with saliva,

and I really panicked and I thought, oh no, see, this is the day that you think you can't just take one little symptom

in isolation and use that to, you know, to say that you've got something coming.

So, so at the point where I'm saying, who are you? Who who are you?

Why are you in my house?

That then that. That's the point that we know it's happening. Well, yeah, that that's it. That fiction.

What do you fear the most comes true?

They say so, so good coming from you.

That is.

That is so ironic. Well, I'm like, I'm like an obese doctor.

Okay. That, that tells you to get, lose weight.

You're the, you're the alcoholic, obese, chain smoking doctor

who is telling his patient that they have to cut down on the amount they smoke, drink, and eat.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Oh, I see, okay. He's a well-known expression,

because, you know, the irony of going to a doctor who is obviously very unhealthy, telling you to get exercise.

We get it, Steve.

I know. Well, I'm just saying it in a different way.

We get it.

Do as I do.

As I say, not as I do is, is probably is a phrase that comes to mind.

Good.

Oh, there we go.

Dark chocolate and good French cognac.

Well, I like French.

I like chocolate, and, but I'm not sure I like cognac, but maybe I should try it.

Yes, well, I've been I've been drinking wine recently when we've been going out for meals.

I've been having the Malbec, Malbec, Malbec wine, which is Argentinean.

I have to say, it is as good

as the French wine, I know. Please don't complain.

But it is lovely.

A nice full bodied red wine. Very nice.

You see. That's it. That's where I want to go. That's why we should do Paris.

That's why we should do France and Italy next year, okay?

Because in France we will have the best wine in the world.

And when we go to Italy, we will have the best coffee in the world,

because that's, that's the two things I remember about going to France.

Going to, Paris is even the cheapest bottle of wine and in France tastes better than most wines you can get in the UK.

Yeah.

Unless you spend a fortune on any coffee in any cafe anywhere in Italy.

Seems to be better than any coffee you can get here in the UK.

You just fall into any cafe, ask for a cup of coffee, and it just tastes so good in Italy.

Yes. I don't know how they do it.

But as we've said before, it's put us off going out for cups of coffee anywhere in the UK because it just doesn't taste as nice.

Oh, as I was, you know, you know what?

I was waiting for a point. Then that was the point.

Oh, the point was, you know, we've been to friends houses.

They've got these coffee machines.

And they're just they're not very good.

You can buy these pods, can't you? Put it in the machines.

They all right, but they're not that much better than instant coffee.

A good quality instant coffee that you can sort of froth up.

But Mr. Duncan makes a very good coffee. I do. I make the best coffee in the world.

Duncan makes very good coffee, and it's instant coffee.

If you ever get the chance to sample one of my coffees, you will be very lucky.

But he he sort of froths it up with a frothing machine and,

it's it's, that you put some.

What else you put evaporated milk. Condensed milk?

Yes. And, it taste as good as anything you can get in most restaurants in the UK or cafes.

And that's a sad fact.

And unfortunately they get it, but they know that they.

Yeah.

When I say they, I mean people that run cafes in the UK, they know that most people in the UK just drink cheap instant coffee at home.

And therefore anything that they do is slightly better.

People are going to accept, but that wouldn't work in Italy.

Okay.

Because, people Italian people would come here going to a cafe in the UK.

I probably think it was ditch water. Yeah, they probably wouldn't, though.

They probably wouldn't go in there.

They probably bring their own Italian coffee with them.

But it is interesting.

It is interesting when you go to different places and sample their food or their type of cuisine, like for example, the wine.

So I always like French wine.

I insist on it.

I don't drink wine all the time.

Well, but if I have a drink, if I have a drink of wine,

then I will think, make a nice little bit of French, bit of, maybe a bit of mellow bit of that.

Nice, nice. Some nice Burgundy region.

Maybe something like that.

But now. Wow, I've discovered the Argentinean wine and I'm thinking.

Hello?

Well, if you like the Argentinean wine, according to Claudia, if you go to Argentina, you will sample the best meat.

Oh, just just.

This is enough. That's the recommendation.

I'll tell you.

Talking about beef, I would, I would well, yeah.

Argentinian beef, of course, is is is renowned for its quality.

We used to have a lot of it. I don't know if we still do.

We used to import a lot of Argentinean beef into the UK.

And, Yeah, it's lovely.

In fact, the best steak the.

I might have said this before we went on holiday, so, you know, you go on holiday.

We did? Yes. The best steak I've ever had. Ever in my entire life.

I don't eat many steaks, but the best I've ever had was in, when we went to,

Oh, where was it, Mr. Duncan?

That restaurant. You're telling. You're telling me? How can I know what you're thinking?

Do you remember that that restaurant we went to buy it back by the by the.

Where was it?

It was in, Turkey. Turkey? That's right.

But it was the best steak.

How am I supposed to know what you're thinking? My energy levels are dropping. Mr..

I've been talking for an hour and a half. I'm not psychic.

That was the best.

I've never had a good steak in the UK, ever.

I do, I do like it when Steve does that. He's trying to think.

He says that there was like that.

That person the other day.

That person, a person. Oh, that that person.

And he said, you know, and I'm going, I don't know.

I have no idea.

My brain's got I need I need a cup of tea and you're okay because, you know, you're not salivating a lot, are you?

Well, no, I'm not, but, Yeah, maybe you were hungry.

Maybe you were salivating the other day because you were just hungry. Mr. Duncan, I am today.

I'm starving.

Darling, we bought a turkey, didn't we, for Christmas?

Not the country we bought it.

Yeah, that's a different take. Yeah, yeah, I turkey gobble, gobble. Okay, okay.

That's my impression of a turkey.

Gobble, gobble.

And, we've had four meals off it so far.

And,

I boiled the bones, the carcase, the legs of the, of the turkey in a saucepan last night.

And we've got wonderful soup today.

So, I'm going to cook some potatoes and some sweet potatoes and some parsnips as a left over and put those in there.

We're going to have this great big bowl of a turkey soup.

Later on.

I can't believe how much turkey we have eaten this week.

I feel my my poor body.

That's the reason why I haven't eaten anything today.

I'm trying to give my digestive system a little bit of a break, because all I've been doing is eating,

eating, eating, and then occasionally it it was leaving me.

But the eating seemed to be taking more of the time than the actual releasing, if that makes sense.

So my stomach and my, my body feels as if it's being overloaded.

So today I didn't eat anything this morning,

although my stomach now is completely empty.

We are going to have a quick break and we are back.

Then with some some quick words and phrases connected to fashion.

Are you a fashionable person?

Do you believe that fashion is important?

All of that coming up at the moment.

There is Steve. And here is Mr. Steve.

He is also here in the studio as well.

We are still here.

It is myself, Mr. Duncan.

And that guy over there is Mr. Steve.

We are with you live on a Sunday here in the UK.

It is just after ten minutes away from four in the afternoon.

We have something to talk about now, Mr..

Steve, a lot of people that this time of year they will go to parties, they will visit relatives or friends,

they will spend time, maybe they will go somewhere nice to eat some food and quite often they will wear nice clothes.

They will look smart.

And I suppose it leads very nicely into this part of the live stream

looking at fashion.

So there I am, underneath, looking very fashionable.

And over there you can see Mr. Steve.

I think Mr.

Steve is, is dressed as a punk rocker from the late 1970s.

I think you look amazing there, Steve.

If only you looked like that in real life, you would have you would have the ladies chasing you all over the place.

So we are looking at fashion, fashion, fashion, fashion.

As a noun, fashion is the prevailing custom, the manner, the current or popular thing.

So generally as a noun we look at fashion as being the overall thing or a particular type of custom,

something that is happening when we look at customs, we are looking at types of behaviour, things that people do.

A contemporary thing is often described as in fashion.

So we do use this word quite a lot, don't we, Steve?

Something that is seen as contemporary.

Thank you. Claudia.

Contemporary.

Yes. Something that is people is something out of the present time?

Contemporary fashion, something that people are getting into.

They like, what is the contemporary fashion of of what?

What is contemporary fashion now? I think fashion changed.

Fashion cycles used to be a lot longer in the past, but they're very short now, aren't they? Yes.

Yes. They almost round in in one year.

You might find lots of fashions coming and going.

It used to be about about ten years.

So, so each fashion would come and slowly vanish over ten years.

But now it's much faster. Yes.

I mean, I read this morning that apparently the it's been a fashion I didn't realise for women to have large handbags.

Handbags, you know, but apparently that's now not fashionable.

And 20, 25, apparently you've got to have a smaller one.

Let's see. Handbags.

Handbags apparently have been very large.

I mean, you know, this is if you follow fashion. Of course.

You're on a bit of a treadmill if you do. Of course.

But, yeah, apparently that there is a fashion at the moment isn't there for, for ladies to have hair extensions.

Yeah.

And have this giant voluminous hair cascading down

across the shoulders and down and that, you know, that clip in hair pieces, aren't they.

Yeah. It's that sort of just in with your natural hair.

I wonder when that fashion will go, I don't know.

Well, it's it certainly looks as if it's, it's here to stay for the, the time being,

it's become fashionable for men who are losing their hair,

which is no fault of their own.

To was fashionable to, you know, keep cling on to as much hair as you could.

But now it's fashionable just to be, just to shave it short.

And although although let us not forget the other thing men can do is go, go to another country

quite often it's Turkey and they will have a hair transplant or something like that.

But I always think it's unfair that women are able to wear wigs and change their hair artificially.

But when a man does it, it's, it's it's seen as weak or humorous, vain.

Very strange that I always think that that I think men should be able to wear wigs

if they want, without any prejudice or judgement being seen as conventional

or the acceptable behaviour or appearance is also fashion

as a noun, the shape, form or design of a particular thing.

It's fashion, so the noun is being used overall to describe that subject.

A kind or sort.

So things.

So when we look at the word kind we are looking it type of thing, a thing, a fashion.

So there might be people in a certain group, but they all have different appearances or styles.

So all fashions of people, in that sense, we are talking about all sorts of people,

all types of people from that collection.

After a fashion,

something that is similar but not as good.

You might do something, Steve.

After a fashion, it means you are doing that thing, but you're not doing it is well.

It is a poor imitation of that thing you are doing.

It after a fashion.

Yes, you might cook something that, you've been to a restaurant and you've had this beautiful, steak and chips,

for example, I which Maurizio said that he's had a very good steak in the UK.

Please tell me why you went

and I'll try it for myself.

But, yeah, you might go out to a restaurant, there's a lovely meal, and then you try to recreate that same meal at home.

But, it's not that good.

And so you could say that you sort of.

I've created this meal after a fashion.

You've tried to make it like it was something, but it's not quite the same.

That's it.

As an adjective, a thing seen as popular and stylish is fashionable.

Something that is fashionable.

So a thing you are doing, wearing your appearance is in keeping with the current fashion.

So the adjective version is fashionable.

A person might go along to a party and they turn up and they look fashionable.

They are dressed in a fashionable way.

Their appearance is very current.

Yeah, it's that good.

That might just not just be clothes, that might be, being fashionable, might not just apply to close.

It might be to certain social behaviours as well.

It might not just be might not to be applying to clothes.

A type of behaviour that's a type of behaviour, particularly when you're eating at a restaurant, for example,

it might be fashionable to, to act or behave in a certain way.

And it wasn't previously something that could have been acceptable, wasn't acceptable before, might be acceptable now.

And the other way round and the other way round.

Say, I like to pick my teeth after I've had a meal.

If I've had meat or something, I like to.

I like to pick my teeth with a little piece of wood called a toothpick.

But it has become unfashionable and people don't like to do it anymore.

It might be fashionable, slightly late at a party.

Yeah, we've got a move on, Steve.

Fashionable can be stylish chic.

Oh, I like that one. Ooh la la. Trendy.

Something is in vogue.

It is in vogue. It is in fashion.

Something is modern. It can be hot.

Something fashionable, something current can be described as hot.

It can be described as in something is in.

That's it.

The singular word in means fashionable.

It is in fashion, popular and also new as well, are often seen as synonyms of fashion.

A little something in, as I mentioned, just is fashionable, and we might say that something is out.

It is out. It is unfashionable.

The in thing is fashionable.

The thing that is out is unfashionable. Yeah.

High heels, high heels are out this year.

No, but I'm just saying that I have news for me.

I like to wear my high heels.

Hair extensions are out in 2025. Oh maybe.

Or you could say that that long dresses

not miniskirts are in again just means they're

in fashion again. Yeah. That's good news for many men.

Many men like to see the ladies in the mini skirts.

And so fashion, fashion comes and goes.

Things can be in fashion.

And then they go out of fashion.

Thank you. Palmira.

The word fashion can also be a verb as well, Steve.

To create something, to make something or design something.

You fashion something, you make something.

It is a form of creativity.

The word fashion can also be used as a verb to form something creatively as well.

So as Steve said earlier, there are many ways of using this word, and in this sense

we are designing something maybe artistically or maybe something that is going to be displayed.

Yes, I want if you had a block of wood or a bit of stone, you want, you know, if you had a block of wood

and you wanted to fashion something out of that, it means you're creating something from that.

You might, you know, you use a chisel to,

to make that piece of

wood into a statue of somebody's head and you fashion it into something.

It means, as you say, your turning something into something else, and.

Then we are using that as a verb.

The word fashion stems from Latin, and it comes from the word to make group

or group together and gather, believe it or not.

So fashion comes from the word make or maybe arrange or group together.

Come together as a group.

And that's why we have the word faction, by the way, that also derives from the same root.

In general terms, fashion is seen as the acceptable manner, the way to behave, the way to dress, the way to do things.

So I suppose, Steve, would you say that some countries might be less fashionable than others?

And by that I mean people to be aware of the fashions?

Now, I would never say that I'm fashion conscious or I don't.

I don't think about fashion very much.

If I like wearing something, then I wear it.

I don't feel as if I'm having to to follow any particular type of fashion at all,

or a type of behaviour.

Maybe.

Maybe if we went to lots of parties.

Yes. In, in, in London, we would,

we'd want to be fashionable because and of course, it depends. I mean, it's a bit of a shallow world, isn't it?

If you go, if your friends won't accept you because you're not waiting

wearing the latest fashions, then maybe you need to change your friends. Yes. That's it.

If you need to wear, keep changing your clothes and, to be accepted in certain groups, then, maybe.

Well, unless you want you want to be feel belonging to those groups, but.

Yeah, well, it's a choice. It's a choice. Yeah.

So a person might have good fashion sense.

They dress in a fashionable way.

We might describe a person who has good dress sense or fashion sense.

They always wear things that might be in fashion or something that is suitable for them.

Of course, not everyone can wear all types of clothing.

Some clothing looks better on certain people.

Fashions come and fashions go.

The current thing soon becomes outdated.

I remember a time when I was fashionable.

Mr. Steve, do you remember that way back in 2008, 2009, 2010?

I was very fashionable. But then of course,

like all things,

those fashions will change, so the current thing will soon become outdated.

Finally, Steve, you'll be pleased to hear something that is unfashionable

can be described as out of date, old fashioned, dated, old hat,

obsolete. I don't like that one.

And so yesterday that is so yesterday.

It means we don't do it anymore.

It is so yesterday.

And there we go.

Some words and phrases connected to fashion.

Yes, you can often be described as old fashion, can't you, people? That's often a criticism of people.

They will level at you if you're wearing clothes that

either.

Maybe if you went into a garden wearing a suit and tie. Yes.

Which is what people used to do back in the 1940s and 50s and even the 1960s.

In the UK, a man going into his garden would would be wearing a tie.

My granddad did. Yeah.

My granddad, when he went into the garden he would do some gardening and quite often he would have a suit with a tie.

They put it on a shirt because they'd be, they'd be in the greenhouse. Yeah.

Tending to his tomatoes and he'd be, it'd be dressed in a casual suit like they were going to church.

And that was just.

But now that would be seen as very old fashioned. That is incredible.

People, I often get my my sister sometimes thinks I'm old fashioned

because she likes to keep up with the fashions, but, I just couldn't care less.

But, you know, it's quite often people would say to me and have done.

Oh, you're a bit old fashioned, aren't you.

But that can not just in your dress, that can be in the way that you perceive life.

And you think about things, your character, maybe some of the phrases you use are

phrases that you got from your parents that aren't used anymore in, in modern parlance.

Well, there's a word. There's a word. Yes. So, but you do.

Sometimes you meet people and they use phrases that are old fashioned, that people don't use anymore.

So it's not just about your clothes.

It could be about your manner, the way you say things.

The way you express yourself. Right.

I need a cup of tea, Mr. Duncan, that we. Don't worry, Mr. Steve. I've not forgotten.

We are going in a moment.

Thank you. Steve. And you know, this is the last.

The last ever English addict of 2024.

So we will not be here until next year.

So we will be back on Wednesday.

I'm not sure if Steve is here, but I will definitely be here welcoming with you

the new year 2025 is when I will be back on January the 1st.

It is just around the corner.

So thank you, Mr. Steve for joining me today.

And also of course during this year without Mr.

Steve we would have nothing, nothing to talk about.

But don't say that, Mr. Duncan.

Sometimes I say controversial things, but hopefully it opens up debate and, encourages people to make comments on the live stream.

Oh, click away or click away. Well hopefully not.

Yeah.

It's been wonderful being here all year.

And of course some of you will celebrate New Year earlier than others.

Because of the the time difference and the the world turning on its axis.

So we look forward to to seeing you all, on Wednesday.

I think I will be there on Wednesday, Mr. Duncan. Oh, I'll say hello to everybody.

Wish everybody happy New Year.

But, if I'm not there, I wish you all a happy New Year from me.

And, see you very soon.

Thank you, Mr. Steve. And he is going now. Catch you later, Mr. Steve.

There he goes.

Mr. Steve is with us every Sunday when everything is normal.

Mr.. Steve is always with us on Sunday.

And of course, sometimes on Wednesday, if he's taking a break from work,

we are going we've been with you now for nearly four hour four.

Oh, it's 4:12 o'clock.

So I've been with you for two hours and 12 minutes. Can you believe it?

I will see you on Wednesday.

And of course it will be next year on Wednesday.

So have a super duper time.

Whatever you are doing your own way of celebrating the New Year as it arrives.

I hope you have a super time.

Thank you for joining me for all of this year.

If you have been around for a while, thank you very much.

If you are a new subscriber or a new viewer, I hope I will see you as well in 2025.

Thank you very much for your company. I will see you later on.

Have a good

New Year's Eve and I will see you on the 1st of January on Wednesday.

And yes, it will be 2025.

And of course, until the next time we meet.

You know what's coming next.

Of course. You know, I've been doing it all year.

Every time I come to the end of one of my live streams.

To Ta for now.

Happy New Year.