ARE YOU AN EARLY BIRD? / English Addict LIVE CHAT & Learning / Sunday 9th JANUARY 2022 - Mr Duncan

yeah oh here we are again hello  everyone nice to see you yes we are back  

and it's quite a nice day today i have to be  honest with you we are having some rather nice  

weather today the sun is out there are just  a few clouds in the sky and everything is  

rather nice and yes i know i am late for which i  apologize here we go again yes it's english addict  

coming to you live from the birthplace of the  english language which just happens to be england

oh there you are hi everybody this is mr duncan  in england how are you today are you okay i hope  

so are you feeling happy today i hope you are  feeling good i hope you have a smile on your face  

and a spring in your step talking of which it  really does feel like spring has arrived it  

feels as if spring is in the air even though  it is it is quite chilly outside very cold  

in fact i was checking the weather forecast a  little earlier and they said that we might get  

some snow this afternoon although at the moment i  i can't see any sign of snow to be honest with you  

but here we go again anyway whatever the weather  is going to do i hope you will stay with me for  

the next two hours yes we are here once again  and my name is duncan i talk about english  

i love talking about the english language  you might even say that i am one of those  

an english addict yes i love the english language  very much and i have a feeling that you do  

as well because that's the reason  why we are here this is the biggest  

the largest english corner in the world  it is honestly if you don't believe me  

ask me and i will tell you  the truth this is the biggest  

the largest english corner in the whole world  because it's not just me it's also you as well  

so i hope you will stay with me lots of fun things  to talk about today we are talking about christmas  

mr duncan that doesn't make any sense why are  you talking about christmas well the reason is  

because there was another christmas being  celebrated last week if you are one of those  

who is celebrating christmas later than many other  people can i say happy christmas to you you know  

where you are and we will be talking about that a  little bit later on because we have done something  

special just for those who are celebrating  christmas later all of that coming up in a  

few moments mr steve of course will be here as  well yes we've made it all the way to the end of  

another weekend without blowing ourselves up which  is always nice when you think about it it's sunday

oh i'm just drinking some water  

excuse me i'm just having a little drink of  water to soothe my throat ah that's better

so we are back together again i hope  you are having a good day where you are  

i hope the weekend has gone well and i  suppose i should also say happy new year  

just in case you haven't received my best wishes  for the new year so can i say happy new year to  

you if you are now celebrating 2022 maybe you are  still celebrating perhaps you are still suffering  

from the hangover perhaps you had too much to  drink on new year's eve and maybe you are still  

feeling under the weather because  you over indulged oh i like that word  

that is a pretty cool word if you over indulge it  means you do something too much you have done too  

much of something maybe you've done some some  exercise maybe you went for a run but you went  

too far and and now your your legs hurt so you  can say that you over indulged in your exercise  

perhaps you had too much alcohol to drink  so you over indulged with booze booze

i love that word when we talk about booze we are  talking about alcohol beer wine spirits booze we  

often use that particular word here in england it  is often used in british english you might notice  

behind me today we have a lovely view the sun is  out everything is looking rather nice and yes that  

is a live view behind the house right now looking  out of the windows so whatever happens behind me  

i have no control over it maybe a dozen naked  people will run across the field behind me perhaps  

a large spaceship will come down and  little green men will come out and say

like that you see so who knows no one knows what's  going to happen because it's live and spontaneous  

at 18 minutes past two on a  sunday hello to everyone hello  

to oh we have the live chat something very  interesting happening on the live chat  

oh um very interesting who was first on today's  live chat oh very very intriguing louis mendes  

you are first on today's live chat congratulations

it would appear that louis has a very fast  finger today also hello to oh hello tomek we  

have tomek we have mega we have v tess hello  vitas you are not first today unfortunately  

but better look next time next sunday perhaps  you will be first next week we will have to wait  

and see anyway another next week because we have  today we have this right now that's happening on  

your computer screen we have to get through this  together hello also olga monisa flower espoire  

we also have maria i'm saying hello to maria  

hello maria thanks for joining me as well  claudia is here as well on the live chat today  

very nice to see you florence we have quadi cordia  smart hello quarter smart where are you watching  

at the moment i don't recognize your name so i  am intrigued i want to find out where you are  

quarter smart where are you watching at the  moment oh i have a big special thank you  

a wonderful big thank you to make in a few moments  to someone special hello also mohsen magdalena  

is here as well mary marik's marijux i don't think  i ever say your name right for which i apologize  

daniel daniel villanue oh hello daniel nice to  see you here as well nice to see your face also  

on your little icon as well next to your name very  nice it's always nice to put a name to a face and  

also a face to a name for example we had did you  see last week i was talking about this last week  

and this particular thing has inspired both myself  and mr steve if you remember last week i showed  

you this photograph of the lovely girls getting  together with beatrice marcia claudia and also  

sandra getting together to have a meet-up a few  days ago well guess what i hopefully along with  

mr steve will also be arranging some sort of  meet up some sort of get together in the future

at the moment and i have to say this at  the moment it is just in the planning stage  

so nothing has been decided there are  no plans yet nothing is is arranged  

there are no firm plans at the moment so at the  moment it's all just in here in my little brain  

but i think it would be a good idea at some point  to arrange a meet-up a get-together a together  

where we can all talk and see each other face  to face wouldn't that be amazing so that is what  

i am thinking of at the moment in my brain some  sort of meetup now we've already mentioned paris  

as a possible place to meet up so that that that's  all we've done so far we haven't arranged anything  

we haven't booked any flights nothing like that  so at the moment it is just plans things that we  

are thinking of a possible arrangement a possible  plan something we might do probably not this year  

if i was completely honest with you i would  say that we won't be doing it this year  

so don't get too excited but i think it will  probably it will be something we will do in 2020  

i don't think it's happening this  year and i'm sure you know why  

so at the moment our plans are up in the air  they are just in my brain and mr steve's brain  

but already we have received some interest  in meeting up so one or two of you have  

already written to me to say mr duncan  we do want to meet you we want to find  

a lovely place where we can all sit down and have  a chat face to face so we will see what happens  

nothing has been arranged so we did say  paris last week because it's quite close  

so we can fly to paris and if anyone else wants  to join us in paris then we can all meet together  

and have a meal and maybe some some of that  lovely french wine oh that sounds nice anyway  

that is a long way off nothing has been arranged  nothing has been planned we have no dates nothing  

but i can say it will probably happen next  year i'm sorry to say that i hate saying that  

but but we would love to see you this year  but we can't you know why you may have heard  

on the news that there are one or  two problems affecting planet earth

so we have mr steve coming in a few moments and  he is doing something slightly different because  

i know and mr steve knows and quite likely  you know that there are more than one  

christmas celebrations and that's what we're  talking about with mr steve a little bit later  

all of that coming up we are also talking about  birds today oh can i tell you something i don't  

want to give too much away but we met our  new friend yesterday our new little friend  

and i actually took some video of our new  friend so we will be showing you that our  

new little friend let's just say our new  friend is small covered with feathers

and was very pleased to see  us yesterday so that coming up  

in a little while right now we are going to say  a big special thank you can i say thank you to  

federico garminder mendiola that's a great name i  hope i pronounced it right thank you federico for  

your lovely donation that i received last week i  didn't mention it on wednesday i was with you live  

last wednesday but i thought i would save it until  today so can i say thank you very much to federico  

for your lovely donation that i received last week  and i was quite overwhelmed as i always am when i  

receive your donations don't forget everything  i do here on youtube i do it for free i don't  

a lot of people think i am a millionaire but i'm  not i am a very long way from a millionaire so  

for the past 15 years i've been doing this  for free you don't have to pay me anything  

however if you want to make a  donation to help my work continue  

to keep everything going then just  like federico you can no problem

thank you once again for your lovely donation and  i do appreciate it very much we are going to take  

a break and then mr steve will be making himself  comfortable but we have something different today  

something a little different is happening for  those who are celebrating christmas at the  

moment and i know what you're thinking mr duncan  we celebrated christmas a long time ago but no  

there are some people who are still enjoying  their christmas festivities and we will be  

taking a look at that with mr steve in a few  moments but to take us there we have an excerpt  

from one of my full english lessons this  is taken from full english number 27.  

many of my lovely lessons are available on  my youtube channel mr steve is on his way

oh there you are i've been waiting here for  ages where have you been welcome to another  

full english lesson with me mr duncan  coming to you from the birthplace of  

johnny rotten phil collins billy idol ringo  starr and of course the english language  

i love english so much i might actually  marry it one day mr and mrs english we  

will be the most elegant guests at the ball  i can see it all now what a wonderful feeling

oh sorry i drifted away there i went into a  daydream i became lost in my thoughts okay  

without any more fantasizing or daydreaming let's  get on with today's full english lesson right

now

here's an interesting word that relates is passive  aggressive a passive aggressive person is someone  

who uses non-direct resistance as a form of  protest or as a means of reacting to something  

a common form of this behaviour is the action of  pretending to misunderstand or feign confusion  

you avoid confrontation by acting dumb  non-direct confrontation can take the form of  

silence avoiding contact or refusing  to speak to someone can be described as  

passive aggressive behaviour it is common for  those in long-term relationships to develop  

patterns of passive aggressive behaviour  the word passive is often used to show  

a submissive state whereas aggression is often  seen as being the opposite some see this word  

as an oxymoron two words that are used together  but have opposite meanings is an oxymoron passive  

aggressive behaviour is generally seen  as a normal part of human interaction  

however it can sometimes be linked to certain  personality disorders to avoid responsibility  

or conflict in a non-compliant way can be  described as passive aggressive behaviour

it's now time to take a look at another  buzzword a buzz word is a word or phrase  

that is used often during a certain  period of time today's buzz word is

tariff the word tariff can be used as a noun  or verb as a noun the word tariff is a form  

of taxation or charge which is added to the  sale of goods imported from overseas if china  

wants to sell their goods to the usa then they  will have to pay tariffs on what they export  

the amount of each tariff depends on what  types of goods are being sold high-end or  

expensive items tend to have a very high tariff  attached to them luxury items such as cars  

and valuable commodities sold overseas such  as oil and steel often carry heavy tariffs  

the charge is added as a way of collecting the  lost revenue which would otherwise be generated  

domestically as a verb tariff is the action of  putting the charge in place a tariff can also be  

described as a levy tax toll duty excise it is a  form of export tax the country exporting the goods  

pays a tariff to the country that is importing  them to charge a tariff is to impose a fee  

the tariffs are put in place they  are required they have been enforced

do you like my garden i must say it looks rather  nice today with all the plants coming into bloom  

did you know that the word plant can be used in  many ways as a verb the word plant means to put  

something in the ground you place something  in a hole and cover it with soil you bury  

something in the ground you plant something to  push something sharp into the ground is plant  

you can plant a flagpole to carefully place a  small flower or tree with its roots under the  

soil is to plant you plant a flower you plant  a tree you can plant a kiss on another person  

to place something where it can easily be found is  to plant the evidence was planted in his apartment  

by the police as a noun the word plant can  refer to a large factory a person who goes  

undercover to pose as another person is a plant a  certain species of flower or other green foliage  

can be described as a plant you can plant a plant  grow a plant nourish a plant or like now you can

enjoy a plant

hmm and there it was one of my  many youtube lessons that i've  

been making for the past 15 years and  that was a good example of one of them  

a full english lesson and you can find them  all on my youtube channel okay here he comes  

and something slightly different today as you  are about to see as mr steve is on his way

we are about to do something different i am here  now on camera but appearing in front of your eyes  

in a few moments something a little different  now we always like to include everyone everyone  

wherever you are watching in the world and i know  last week that a lot of people were celebrating  

christmas so i thought we both thought in  fact this was mr steve's idea that we would  

keep the christmas tree up in the house  and that's what we've done so here he comes  

prepare to see the man himself not only mr  steve but also our lovely christmas tree  

that we've decided to keep  up as a way of celebrating  

late christmas because there are more than more  than one christmas celebration did you know that

did you know that mr steve we are on oh i didn't  know i was waiting for it i was waiting to listen  

to your music that normally introduces me so i  was just merrily just in my own little world there  

so hello to everybody can you hear me mr duncan  is the microphone working oh it's working that's  

very good that's very good yes as mr duncan said  we're still celebrating christmas as you can see  

we haven't taken the christmas tree down now i  have taken down a lot of the other decorations  

the tinsel the various ornaments and things  that we normally have associated with christmas  

decorations but we've left the christmas tree up  because we know and mr duncan will go into this in  

other parts of the world they're still celebrating  christmas now i know what you're thinking i know  

what you're thinking it's past the 12 days after  christmas so is it unlucky mr duncan because it  

is uh rumored and often said that if you keep your  decorations up after the 12th night which was last  

week i think it was last thursday then it will  be unlucky but it isn't unlucky because we're now  

into the other calendar with the other countries  so we're still celebrating christmas so we've kept  

the christmas tree up haven't we mr duncan yes  that's what we've done so a lot of people believe  

that that you must take your christmas decorations  down before the 12th night which actually falls  

on on the 6th of january however there are other  people who celebrate christmas at a different time  

later than we do and that's what we're going to  talk about for the next few moments so we often  

refer to this as the orthodox christmas you  can see it on the screen now orthodox christmas  

so there are some people who celebrate christmas  at a different time of year and there is a reason  

for that a very good reason in fact the christmas  festival is celebrated later because the julian  

calendar is observed so do you  understand what that means steve  

yes so let's pretend we're in russia  and i'd love to have christmas in russia  

and there are other countries mr duncan will  mention them who are celebrating christmas  

right now well they have just christmas day was i  think a couple of days ago uh but they're still in  

that christmas celebration period and i've often  thought because uh when you look when i look back  

at my childhood at television programs whenever  russia or was depicted on the television whenever  

we had programs about russia it was always around  christmas time and it always looked so wonderful  

and snowy and colourful and i just wanted to go  there so that's where i'm going to pretend that  

we are we're actually in russia and we're still  celebrating christmas now so i think that's quite  

a good thing to do because we like to include as  many people as possible so the christmas festival  

is celebrated later in some places because the  julian calendar is observed other countries  

follow the gregorian calendar such as us so  here in the uk and many parts of the world other  

countries follow the gregorian calendar which is  why christmas is at a different time much earlier  

because of this we have two christmas celebrations  in fact did you know steve there are more than two  

christmas celebrations there are in fact  four different christmas celebrations yes  

we've had uh fernando who's uh who's mentioned  armenia and serbia uh who must be part of that um  

calendar that we're talking about and uh are  you going to list all the countries that are  

celebrating christmas at the moment or so at  least some of them yes in a few moments yes and so  

so christmas day this year steve was celebrated  on the 7th of january some also celebrated it on  

the 6th of january so because of the difference so  many people celebrated on the 6th some also on the  

7th as well and as you mentioned just yes this  particular festival is observed in other places  

including russia georgia ukraine macedonia  montenegro serbia and also in jerusalem which  

i did not realize i have to be honest with you i  know i'm probably showing my ignorance steve but  

have we got anybody watching now who is in one  of those countries that mr duncan has mentioned  

uh and are taking time out from their celebrations  to watch us today we want to know are you in  

one of those countries and are you watching us  today we'd love to know well so please tell us  

and finally some more information steve  we've got lots of information here actually  

other orthodox christians such as those belonging  to the jurisdictions of constantinople bulgaria  

greece romania antioch alexandria albania cyprus  finland and the orthodox church of america  

amongst others began using the revised julian  calendar which actually matches the gregorian  

one so they actually celebrate their christmas day  on the same day as us so as you can see it's not a  

simple thing to talk about it can be quite complex  and some people over the years steve have actually  

argued and disputed when christmas should  actually be celebrated according to the various  

calendars of course we know that  uh assuming you you believe in uh  

jesus christ and the birth and all that assuming  you believe all that let's assume you do then  

uh i i don't think it actually occurred uh in in  december anyway uh it was just changed was it not  

to uh annoy the pagans yes uh mr duncan i think  probably we should be celebrating it in i don't  

know when the actual date is i think it's  mid-summer i think it is actually mid-summer  

but it was changed probably hundreds of years  ago i don't know when uh to be in the winter  

uh as you say just to annoy the pagans uh  at the time so i don't know too much about  

that too much more about that but i think that's  uh why it was changed originally well what's  

interesting steve is is a lot of different  beliefs and celebrations all became merged  

together they all joined together so you have the  worshipers of trees who who believe that trees are  

living beings and they often have a festival  around the i think it's the winter solstice  

so that's the reason why you see so so you can  see the christmas tree became part of christmas  

because of other beliefs and celebrations and  then of course you had santa claus who is actually  

based on a real person so so you can see how these  things have all come together over the years and  

that's the reason why we have christmas when we do  and that's the reason why we have trees and santa  

claus and lots of other things as well including  gifts of course which once again derives from  

saint nicholas who was the patron saint of i  think he also was was very kind to children  

he believed in giving gifts to children so  that's how we we got santa claus in the end  

but i have to say steve the tree is  looking magnificent and i suppose also  

i should mention that mr steve actually did  the tree so steve decorated the tree this year  

so i didn't do it and i have to say  steve you have made a wonderful job  

well yes and we're keeping it up now i did  see on the live chat somebody else i can't  

remember i was just trying to find it then have  kept their treat up anyway oh and i know a few  

people at work at least one other person where i  work they've kept their christmas tree up because  

well it just looks nice when you're sitting here  at night you switch the tree on it just makes  

you feel happier so we are considering keeping  the christmas tree up all year you know we're  

tempting fate could be bad luck associated with  it but i mean i don't know i mean we've taken  

everything else down maybe we could keep the tree  up mr duncan but take some of the tinsel off or  

something like that i don't know but it does look  nice and we will seriously consider leaving it  

up all year it'll be difficult to dust it though  it'll attract a lot of dust yes and spiders will  

put all their webs in it uh so i think i think  we probably will end up taking it down because  

how do you dust a tree how would you keep it  clean that would be a big problem uh mr duncan  

i think and uh i don't know what do you think  do you think we should keep it up a lot well has  

anybody else kept their christmas tree up anybody  else watching us still get their christmas tree up  

and are you considering leaving it  up all year or not please let us know  

uh nobody yet has said that they are in  any of the countries that we've mentioned  

that who are celebrating christmas and that's  probably because they're busy celebrating  

and they're not on today yes i suppose it's ironic  that we're talking about this and saying hello to  

those celebrating but they are probably not  watching because they're still enjoying the  

the festive season you see so so maybe yes  i think you have a good point there steve  

a lot of people already steve a lot of people are  admiring your shirt yes well i've worn this shirt  

before this is a shirt that i i bought in turkey  and i've mentioned it before because people um  

have admired it when i've worn it before i think  i only wore it about two weeks ago so if you look  

back at any of the the previous uh videos in the  last few weeks you will notice that i have been  

wearing this shirt particularly as it looks a bit  christmassy and i'm going to sneeze mr duncan i'm  

trying to resist i'm doing the nose pinching  trick okay i will take you off for a second  

mr steve wants to have a sneeze okay steve  you are you are free to sneeze a lot a lot  

no you're off now steve steve you're not on  now okay if you want to blow your nose you can  

as you can see mr steve still doesn't  listen to me when i'm talking to him  

and that was supposed to be one of his new  year's resolutions you see that i gave to  

him a lot of people asking where i am well  i am in the studio but mr steve is standing  

by the christmas tree we've decided to keep  the christmas tree up as a way of helping  

those who celebrate christmas later to have  some fun as well and mr steve is back have  

you had your lovely sneeze i just blew my nose  i managed to suppress it suppress that means to  

reduce the something happening reduce the chance  of something happening or stop it altogether  

suppress because there's a nice little trick if  you people probably know this if you just do that  

on your nose you can stop a sneeze occurring and  i have been out of the garden so i've probably got  

fungal spores stuck in my nose uh from all the  dead matter that's out there so that's probably  

what's causing me to feel like i'm sneezing or  is it just your live streams because every week  

i seem to have a bit of a sneeze every time we're  on on the live stream i was horrified to see that  

you you were actually up a ladder earlier in the  garden i was up a ladder but no higher than my own  

height okay uh so i never i like i i don't mind  going up ladders as long as i don't go beyond  

six feet sorry six feet you wish all right but  my i always feel safe i i start to get nervous  

when i go up ladders if i go beyond what my  own height i don't it's a psychological thing  

because i think that if i fall over from  this height i probably won't do too much  

damage but if you start going higher then  i will probably incur some significant  

damage although i nearly did today i think if you  fell off a ladder from even six foot up and hit  

your head you'd probably end up in hospital which  you don't want to at the moment because there  

aren't many hospital beds because of you know  what okay steve that's great i'm enjoying this  

this report well anyway lots of people are  taught are mentioning i think you brought it  

up and talking about our possible meet up that we  we discussed last week and there's a lot of people  

saying who think that paris would be a good place  to start now we're only talking about that as a  

first place maybe this year in following years  we'd like to visit every continent i wouldn't  

we must have done good we would yes definitely  we'd like to go to south america we'd like to go  

to africa maybe we'd like to go to india steve  to russia we'd like to go all around the world  

i don't think we're going to be going to all those  places not this year but we'd like to start okay  

start with paris and make sure you know as long  as there's no trouble as long as we all meet  

there's no trouble still we can expand  other areas of the world stay what  

oh god sake i'm happy to hear you mr duncan  oh okay well i know because you won't shut up

steve one of us has got to talk mr duncan steve  yes we're not going to all those places we are we  

are at the moment we're starting small well that's  what i said i didn't say this year yes i said  

we're starting this year yeah maybe don't mention  any other countries because i'm getting emails now  

asking when i'm going to to those countries  yeah but i've said we're not going this year  

we're not going this year maybe just to one place  yes okay steve i think i was quite clear on that  

no need for you to shout at me mr duncan you  wouldn't shut up you're like a wind-up toy  

anyway oh yes the task mr duncan said that they  would drive to paris uh so i think that's very  

impressive um so not sure where you are vitas but  you're willing to drive there which i think is uh  

admirable uh i think tomic would go um and quite  a few other places francesco has suggested rome  

which of course would be a lovely place to meet  uh we'd love to go to rome okay but maybe we'll  

stick to paris to start off with because we know  it and it's easy to get to yeah yes but at the  

moment i have to point out because if you just  tune in and hear us talking about this you might  

assume that we are doing this nothing is planned  because i keep receiving the emails you see  

nothing is planned at the moment there is  no plan for meeting up but we are hoping  

to do it probably not this year but it will be  sometime in 2023 so we still have a bit of a wait  

i don't know we could all we will  try we'll see what happens mr duncan  

okay then steve all the restrictions are  lifted and we can travel anywhere we like  

okay then anyway we need a holiday mr duncan we  haven't had a holiday for many years this is true

but i don't think the restrictions are going to  be lifted just yet well let's wait not even steve  

not even tennis players not even world-class  tennis players are exempt from the rules oh

well yes yes there's a certain  tennis player having problems in  

australia um but we won't go into that i wasn't  going to yes if you don't follow the rules in  

in countries then that you can come a cropper if  you come a cropper it means you get into trouble

mr duncan am i going to stay here for the rest  of the livestream all right am i going to come  

back into the studio well the thing what i've  noticed steve what i've noticed is there is no  

fairy on the christmas tree so i was just  wondering if you would like to climb up onto the  

christmas tree get on top of it and and maybe you  could be a fairy now there is a little star but  

could you just position yourself in front of the  tree as if you are a little angel or maybe a fairy

it's more it's going to be difficult mr duncan  because uh well we haven't really got a fairy uh  

we have robins and i think you might be talking  about robin's later we are because we we met our  

little friend yesterday we are going to have  a look at that in a few moments where mr steve  

rejoins us back in the studio so thanks steve and  once again can i say once more happy christmas to  

those who are celebrating christmas slightly later  than everyone else i hope you had a wonderful time

yeah i hope you enjoyed that some lovely  animals and as you know i love animals very much  

all the nature that exists around  us is ever so nice actually

so the big question is

the big question is when will the big meet-up  happen we don't know at the moment we're not  

sure we don't know but sometime in the future  that's the best we can do really isn't it  

yes be nice if we could do it this year we will  try and uh obviously we'll make some plans and  

then let everybody know yeah but it's at the  moment it's more likely to be somewhere european

we're going to hitchhike aren't we we're going to  stand at the side of the motorway and we're going  

to use our thumb to try and get a ride have you  ever tried that by the way have you ever tried  

hitchhiking i remember years ago steve growing  up you would often see people walking by the road  

and they would be looking for a lift or a ride to  another place quite often they'd be there on the  

road like this i used to give i used to stop and  give people a lift if they were attractive oh uh  

if you were ugly sorry i didn't stop that was my  no i don't think i think i only ever did it once  

people used to do a lot of hitching hitching  by the side of the road that yeah i've got  

to be on camera when i'm doing that hitching  uh sort of i mean it was very common back in  

the 1970s the olden days and 1980s people  used to hitch a ride all the time because  

a lot of people then didn't have a car um but of  course most all the most i would say most people a  

lot more people have cars now and of course people  don't feel safe hitching lifts anymore because  

you know if you hitch a lift off a stranger  like mr stewart what's going to happen to  

you i think you you've given a good reason  not to do it because steve steve would only  

pick you up if you were attractive and i have  to be honest with you that sounds very creepy

and there were one or two high-profile cases  of uh people hitching lifts and then you know  

disappearing and never being found again so i  think i don't think i can't remember ever seeing  

for years anybody hitching a lift you  used to commonly see lorry drivers  

who used to deliver their cargo to wherever it  was going and then they wanted a hitcher lift back  

to their depot that used to be i don't i never  understood why they didn't drive the lorry back  

but i think in those days there were different  arrangements i don't know why okay but you  

would often see lorry drivers hitching lifts or  people that had delivered a car if you having  

a new car and it was delivered to your house or  to the dealer then the person that delivered it  

would want it to hitch a lift back to where they  worked but of course they don't do it that way now  

someone would come with them uh and then give them  a lift back but you know back in the 70s and 80s  

then lots of people were hitching yes professional  people not just people who wanted to to get a free  

ride somewhere but people who were working and had  delivered something and then wanted to get back to  

where they worked it was quite commonplace  i think also nowadays more people have cars  

so they don't actually have to hitchhike but  yes it used to be very very common you would  

see people traveling around the country and  they would often stand at the side of a road  

using their thumb like this trying to get a ride  alessandra says i would give some people lifts  

and i if if a person was hitchhiking i would  give them a lift in the car lulu the 17th uh says  

uh more people are hitchhiking than ever before  it's called uber oh i see yes well i suppose  

some some people might say that you are taking  your life in your hands by doing that as well  

yes dangerous for a woman christina yes uh yeah  maybe if you were maybe if you were in america  

you could carry a gun with you and it wouldn't  be quite so dangerous but yeah it is it is  

far more dangerous for a woman now it is for  a woman to walk alone out at night now he says  

in argentina there are many teachers who will  hitchhike in order to to reach their workplace  

which i find fascinating so maybe in some  places it still happens you don't see it  

very much here and i think steve is right i  think it is mainly because of safety yes there  

were there's been there were a few i don't know  when sort of many a few decades ago many hype  

a few high-profile cases on the news where  people who would hitchhike to lift off somebody  

you know ended up being murdered so i think it's  sort of nobody recommends that you do that now  

especially if you're a woman i always my mum used  to tell me all the time my mummy used to say never  

never get into a car or walk off with a stranger  until they've paid me first i don't know what that  

means i'm not sure about that i think my nose i  think my mother was trying to get rid of me of  

people are tomex still talking about meeting up i  think he's very keen yes uh we are keen yeah yeah  

i can't wait to do it but unfortunately  the rest of the world isn't quite ready

we have to wait until normality returns  well i think i don't think that's going  

to be too long you know mr duncan i don't think  it will be uh anyway we can't start doing that  

or else we will we will be snatched off youtube  yes uh i if we do end up wherever we end up going  

uh around the world paris we're assuming it's  paris you will hear us coming because i will  

hire a ford mustang and put it on the loudest  exhaust setting so you will know we've arrived  

how are you going to get how are you getting a  ford mustang all the way to paris well i shall  

hire it and then get the appropriate papers  oh okay maybe that's a way we can escape the  

customs maybe you'll just be waved through yeah i  don't know what you're on about now i have no idea  

anyway we will see what happens that is in the the  future and as they say you cannot always predict  

the future in fact i think most people can't  predict the future if i was completely honest  

with you they can't would you like to see  something lovely something nice yesterday  

we went on a lovely walk and i'm going to have to  ask mr steve to move the ipad because i can't see  

my screen oh right okay mr duncan uh which shall  i just move it there we go that's it steve has  

put the ipad right in front of my controls  it's okay no you put it there anyway steve

anyway here we have love lovely lovely scenery  and lovely sounds because we were out yesterday  

taking a walk and we met a friend that we met a  few days ago but this time we actually managed to  

do some filming so this is our new little friend  and i'm not going to have any music playing i'm  

just going to play you the natural sounds that  were happening around us and here it comes now

so there it was yesterday we went  for a walk and and our little  

friendly robin came to say  hello to us and as a tribute

oh mr yeah we did think that you know maybe that  little robin would follow us home and oh mr duncan  

there's a robin on me mr duncan  yes is it our friend robin

i think this one's been stuffed

oh it's just in a poo on you lovely yes this has  come off the christmas tree yes i can't remove  

it now mr duncan oh there we go i can't believe  there he is steve points out that it's not real

i think i think most of the viewers  have worked out that that is not real  

yes but it was i mean it was an especially  friendly robin especially friendly very  

friendly because i don't know why it was that tame  because we were in the middle of nowhere really  

it shouldn't have been that tame i'm only assuming  that it was either naturally like that or it has  

been fed by other people on a regular basis and  has become tame because it was just in the middle  

of a forest really yeah it was amazing i know but  uh it was a nice little moment and we've been back  

three times now and every time we stand in this  place where we first saw it and it just appears  

out of the out of the woodland so now we started  taking food for it yes so you may have noticed in  

that video that the the robin was actually picking  some bread so we actually took some little pieces  

of bread and threw it on the ground and then out  of nowhere the robin suddenly appeared so i think  

this might be a regular event now we might be  seeing the robin every weekend when we are walking  

we'll capture it and bring it to our garden and  then it can be it can live with us yes all louis  

is talking about all the good restaurants in paris  my stomach is grumbling can you hear my stomach  

i'm i'm starving because i haven't eaten today  uh of course louis knows all the best restaurants  

the ones that have the best food but don't  charge you a lot of money oh i see sometimes  

you eat better in the ones that are not well  known we found a lovely restaurant didn't we uh  

on the champs-elysees well it  wasn't it was near the louvre  

wasn't it if you remember yes and we were walking  back and we there was this lovely restaurant  

and we had the most delicious beef burgundy  that i've ever had in my life and i remember  

the name it was called the the red cafe louis  look it up yeah that probably wouldn't be  

well it wasn't that expensive  i wouldn't have said it was  

it wasn't over the top expensive it depends it  depends what it depends what you call expensive so  

for some people maybe 10 pounds is too expensive  for some maybe 20 pounds but yes it was reasonable  

we had what did we have we had beef burgundy yes  with some lovely potatoes as valentine's already  

pointed out where they serve you mashed potatoes  yes yes they do well that's everywhere we went in  

in paris we got served mashed potatoes with every  meal it was unexpected and as you know i love  

mashed potatoes so i have a feeling maybe because  i'm part french i have a little bit of french in  

me as it were so so maybe that is why i love  mashed potatoes so much is it normal louis can  

tell us this anybody else also that's living in  in paris uh is it normal to serve mashed potatoes  

with food in in a restaurant in paris i would  say yes because everywhere restaurant we went  

to we got mashed potatoes that's kind of answering  the question was it because we were they knew we  

were british or is that a normal accompaniment  well are you telling the accompaniment to the  

meal are you telling me that restaurants in  paris keep mashed potatoes in their restaurant  

just in case british people go in there i don't  think that's true but it is yes it's it's a  

traditional dish there is a type of potato  that they they make it all fluffy don't they  

i know it's absolutely gorgeous and we had it  that night our final night when we stayed in paris  

and we went to i think it was the red café or  the red restaurant and it was it was very close  

to the louvre because we had been walking around  that area and then suddenly we felt quite hungry  

didn't we well louis louis the uh 17th not  to be mixed up with uh with another louis uh  

i think it's no it's that yeah um is is  mixing up the red café with café rouge  

uh which definitely is a chain of restaurants  in the uk oh yes that's nothing to do with  

it wasn't the same thing no it was very different  this was quite different but yes you are right  

uh café rouge is uh a chain of restaurants that we  do see in the uk i don't know if they're in other  

countries in the world and they do serve french  style continental food it is very good maybe we  

were ripped off maybe it was a cafe rouge and they  just changed the name to the red cafe no it wasn't  

it was a little independent place because the  waiters were very attentive and and also one  

of one of my best memories of the trip that we  had to paris was when mr steve ordered coffee  

from a waiter and we were sitting on the  street weren't we outside one of the cafes  

we were near we were near near the the  uh mountain of saints yes or martyrs  

the mountain of martyrs as it's called and we we  were ordering coffee mr steve did such a good job  

he he said de de de cafe de cafe that was it  wasn't i just remembered suddenly it all came  

flooding back the little bit of french  that i learned at school served me well

yeah i mean you should speak fluent french  because you're you know you're part french yes  

um yes victoria loves monata so vittori you can  come to paris as well when we all meet up not if  

when yes uh maybe you can get a lift off vitas  who's driving there well you could all come  

together a car share maybe you could just rent a  coach yes or a bus and you could all come together  

we could have you could have a big tour or a big  a big party of of people arriving mr duncan's  

french party uh louis says that  it's not normal this is louis mendes  

because we've got two louis's on now we've got  louis the 17th uh although it's spelt differently  

louis we've got louis the 17th and we've  got louis so we've got to be careful we  

don't mix them up uh it's not normal to serve  mashed potatoes unless you have asked for it  

maybe i don't think we do did you ask  for mashed potatoes it was served with it  

it was served with it they probably  thought british give them mashed potatoes  

but but surely they would have wouldn't  they have given us chips instead  

chips whatever it was delicious so that's it i'm  having beef burgundy or wherever we go yes i just  

all i want to do now is go back to paris and  eat some delicious food because i am starving i  

haven't eaten any food today but yeah i can tell  but you'll be fading away mr duncan your blood  

sugar level will drop you see mr duncan does this  every sunday yes because i'm busy doing preparing  

this and my computer wasn't working properly again  doesn't prepare properly doesn't prepare doesn't  

give himself time to eat such dedication to the  world of english that mr duncan doesn't even eat  

uh you do drink but you don't eat yes i need my  water very bad for you mr duncan very bad for you  

you know your new health by the way how is  your new health regime you know we talked  

about our our new year resolutions yes last  week so we did suggest things to each other  

and the one that i suggested to you was take  daily exercise a walk how's it going very well  

really yes i feel great i've i i've had a  wonderful start to the year we had a lovely  

walk yesterday we met mr robin chirping  and singing as we walk by so yes we have  

we i feel great thank you very much by the way  talking of birds steve yes talking of birds ah  

are you talking about women the slang name for  women birds we have some bird phrases phrases  

connected to birds and there you can see look  there is our little robin hello hello mr robin he  

is it's not lovely i say there he is it could be a  she it's definitely a a he because only males sing  

but this one has had much of a voice i think  it was i think maybe it had a sore throat  

or something maybe maybe it's a new you know  maybe it wasn't male or female maybe it was  

something else maybe trans maybe the trans robin  or you know what's the other phrase that we use  

now mr duncan um i don't know there are lots of  phrases all the various do you mean non-binary yes  

maybe it's a non-binary robin yes because  it was sort of singing but not very much  

but you know you never know maybe the animal  uh kingdom is adopting some of human behaviours  

um but there you go so we've got bird phrases mr  duncan we have bird phrases so stand by as we have  

the first one steve oh this is a good one up with  the lark up with the lark it means you have got  

up very early in the morning or you often  get up early so i often get up with the lock  

no you don't well no i i wasn't on about me oh  right it's just what's the opposite of getting up  

with the lark i was only joking mr jack i'm just  explaining the sentence up with the lark means you  

are getting up very early in the morning i get up  every morning with the lark i know i don't before  

you say that he doesn't but that's just an example  you say of the phrase up with the lark it's  

probably one of the it's probably known as a bird  that starts singing very early in the morning yes  

um and i don't think we've got any larks around  here i've never heard one we might do i don't  

think we have we we normally hear black birds  in the morning black birds are normally the the  

first birds to start singing around this area so i  suppose we could say we are up with the blackbird  

or just up with the birds you could say yes yeah  so you'll be getting up in the early hours of  

the morning one uh sorry you were getting  up sort of five a.m or something like that  

you'll be getting up as the the sun is rising  um is is what that phrase means you are up  

with the log yeah here's another one connected  to mornings the early bird catches the worm  

the early bird catches catches the worm so again  it means if you do something before other people  

if you get in before other people if you are  first maybe first to arrive or the first person to  

do something the early bird catches the worm  that means if you if you are prepared or if you  

do something before other people then you will be  rewarded yes it's indicating that you're prepared  

to put in a bit more effort than somebody else um  my boss when i first started in sales um you know  

going back over 30 years now uh in order to see  customers uh then what sales people used to do  

this particular type of customer that i used to  see um then you had to go and put your business  

card in very early and then when you went back if  you were the first to get your business card in  

to the secretary then you would be the first  person to see that customer you may have to go  

back later you know when they've finished but then  so my boss always used to say to me the early bird  

catches the worm he that was a phrase he always  used it's not used very often now but what it  

meant was if i'm prepared to get up early and  drive my car you know it could be an hour away and  

put my business card in in front of that customer  then i'll be the first person to see that customer  

and the first person that sees the customer  usually gets more time and stands more chance  

of getting a sale apparently the lark we've got  to move on steve the lark is alouette alouette  

in french right so that's like the  is is that like the nursery rhyme

gentile halloween yes i've heard  of that don't know what it means  

so maybe the maybe the jaunty alouetta is the  happy lark lots of people talking about uh see  

we've mentioned liking food in paris and of course  you are right all of you that have said that  

you can get lovely food all around  the world yes um so uh but but yes  

it's just it's more reputation and sort of uh sort  of misty sort of paris has always got this sort of  

reputation hasn't it has been in fact we didn't  get nice food everywhere in paris we went to  

a pizza restaurant on the chandelier and it was  the worst pizza i've ever had it wasn't very good  

so yeah you don't necessarily get good food  but you might think you are but not necessarily  

it was a bit sloppy it was horrible it was sloppy  i would have sent it back if i'd known how to  

do that in french but yes it is it is true you  get uh lovely meals in and as as louis has said  

you've got to know where are the best restaurants  because the touristy ones like on the chandelier  

they probably can get away with serving rubbish  food because they know the tourists are gonna  

they're not gonna be coming back their clientele  the people that visit them uh are probably only  

going once and they're going home and so they  probably don't need to worry about having good  

quality food to encourage people to go back  all the time because the locals won't be going  

there probably so anyway there you go clientele  that's great because that's a french word  

that means that means customers the patrons  the people who are going in the clientele  

the clients that's where the word client comes  from so bird phrases steve we have another one  

this is quite often we do our live streams like  this on a wing and a prayer so you do something  

but you do it precariously you do it sometimes  we have to cross our fingers and sometimes i  

have to clench my buttocks because sometimes  things go wrong like today you see that's the  

reason why i was late today so sometimes we have  to do this live stream on a wing and a prayer  

it's it's all very precarious yes you might not  have had time to do much preparation uh maybe  

the equipment hasn't been set up you just sort  of it's it's it's you're hoping everything will  

go all right it means you're unprepared oh you  know mr duncan's doing his live stream today on  

a wing and a prayer he's just hoping and praying  that it will go right whereas if you were to maybe  

you were doing a presentation to some customers or  something at work a speech presentation and if you  

did very little preparation you might just  stand up there and just off the top of your head  

without too much preparation just  talk about whatever the subject was  

you just do it on a wig and a prayer  whereas if you did lots of preparation  

did all the research you had notes handouts then  that's the opposite of honouring in a prayer  

and of course we all know people that go through  life like that they don't bother preparing very  

much that's it most of the time they're perfectly  all right so so that doing this sometimes it is a  

little bit like doing something on a wing and  a prayer see nissa's got me uh interested now  

and going to india because he's mentioned he  knows full well that i love a good curry uh  

imagine going to india i'm just having curry for  breakfast dinner and tea ah spa i love that mr  

duncan we did that in malaysia here's another  one bird phrases oh this is an interesting one  

so this is all connected to the habits  of birds pecking order the pecking order  

so the order of authority or the hierarchy so did  you know in the bird community quite often there  

is a pecking order there is there is a very strong  boisterous alpha bird and then the pecking order  

is the birds that come after so so maybe the  first birds to to eat or the first birds to mate  

depends on the pecking order so quite  often we use this phrase also in  

in the workplace maybe the the boss the supervisor  and then all the other workers are at the bottom  

so we talk about the pecking order  so this actually does exist in nature  

with birds quite often a group of birds will  have something called a pecking order so they  

don't know that it's a form of hierarchy almost  usually based on which one is the most aggressive  

so but in other communities of  animals um like monkeys for example  

there is yet that the dominant one the one  that's asserted themselves as the dominant male  

normally will be the one that gets gets all the  best food uh gets the best mate that sort of thing  

so yeah that um it's it's connected with you know  birds pecking away at food and it's usually in the  

wild in nature it's the most aggressive person  that gets all the food first but of course we  

have that same thing as mr duncan described in  in human behaviour and for example in a wedding  

i mean if you think about it the bosses in most  companies have probably got there because they're  

the most aggressive and uh the most ambitious how  is a wedding uh well in a wedding you you get the  

the guests the the the head table will get uh you  know the wedding party the most important people  

that the bride and bridegroom will probably get  fed first so that's a pecking order it means that  

they get fed first and then everybody else gets  fed afterwards so i wonder where we will be  

your your your your nephew's wedding where  we'll be we'll be grovelling around the tables  

for scraps oh by the way we're going to a wedding  this year in june mr steve and myself are going to  

a wedding it's not it's not us by the way before  anyone says it's not us that's not happening  

but we are going to your your nephew his wedding  so he's married or marrying he's marrying a lovely  

canadian girl he lives in canada so they are  they are getting married here and and we we  

have been invited to the wedding but i don't know  where we will sit because normally whenever mr  

steve and myself go to anything like a wedding  reception or a party we always we are always put  

on the table with all the other misfits so we've  noticed this haven't we we've noticed this when  

we go to weddings we're sort of put on a table uh  let's say with don't want to be unkind but when  

we're we're on a table with the least important  people at the wedding yes normally all the weirdos  

well we of course are weirdos yes uh but anyway  no you see my uh mother is coming with us so i  

think she will elevate us automatically onto  a more important table not that we're bothered  

i'd rather stay in the shadows anyway quite  frankly but of course then mr duncan being a  

famous uh english teacher on youtube you'll  probably be sitting right by the bride and  

bridegroom because of your fame yes i i actually i  i can let you in on a surprise i'm actually going  

to jump out of the cake so when when the wedding  cake is put on the table i'm actually going to  

jump out of the cake and say surprise everyone  it's really my party it's my show not yours  

yes we'll have to restrain maybe we could  do a live stream at the wedding and upstage  

all the guests yes valentin says are  you are you just amongst the losers  

everybody knows uh you know a wedding  there's always a table of yes the sort  

of misfits and losers that's us so and people  are you know there's always people that you  

you don't want to be on that table do you because  uh there are certain families that are always put  

together and then there's people that may come on  their own or people that you know just odd people  

that you just want to put them all together on  the table you just want all the triple makers and  

all of the weirdos together on one table so you  can control them easier so that's why we always  

end up we are always put on the table with all of  the weirdos yes which brings me on to an apology  

i should apologize now if you  have ever sat at a table with us

i have news for you you are also a weirdo so  there you go so if you ever want to find out  

how weird you are if you ever go to a wedding and  you are at a table with us you know that you are  

officially a weirdo louis xvi has said i  understand i've been seated at a table like that  

now you know if you potentially could cause  embarrassment at the wedding you know you're  

going to be on that table usually at the  back somewhere uh you know out of harm's way  

so that you can't cause embarrassment you you know  there are always family members that have to be  

invited because if they weren't invited you know  they're part of the family so you have to invite  

everybody from a family don't you normally there's  you don't have to invite everybody but there are  

always going to be some people that there might  be children of important relatives in the wedding  

they have to be invited but stuck  on a table yeah out of sight  

out of mind so so so that is it you see so we  are going to a wedding it's it's steve's nephew  

who's getting married and i'm only going for  the food i'm only going there for the food you  

know me i will go to anything anything if there is  food involved i mean i used to get crash funerals  

i used to sneak into funerals just for the food  just for the food the the little party that  

people have afterwards after a funeral i just  sneak in and eat some of the food and say um  

well i've got to go now oh is that the time  oh um my condolences and i'm out of here

yes so we will be going to that we we we will  do some filming i'm sure we will do some filming  

yes uh because we will sit at the centre we will  sit at the sad table and we will do a little video  

and we will show all the other people at the table  victoria is looking forward to the live stream at  

the we probably won't do a live stream i don't  think so i don't think your sister will let us  

no i think we'll probably be stopped  uh but uh and i think it would be um  

you know it wouldn't be a good thing to do  disrespectful disrespectful to upstage uh  

the bride and bride yes anyway can we have some  more bird phrases yes you can here we go oh i  

like this one a bird in the hand is worth two  in the bush so something you have something you  

possess quite often is something more valuable  than something you are trying to get because you  

have it you have it there don't you yes so it's  yours you have it so maybe if you have 20 pounds  

in your hand some lovely money but you're standing  outside the bank but you can't have that money  

that money unfortunately is not yours but the  money in your hand you do have a bird in the hand  

is worth two in the bush yes sometimes  it's best to keep what you've got  

rather than to try and get something else because  if you fail at getting the extra thing that you  

want you might lose what you already have  you might lose everything so remember a bird  

in the hand is worth two in the bush this is a  phrase for people who don't like taking risks um

all right okay yes laura says you are delicious  weirdos thank you yes and thomas says is it  

because we play for the other team or is it just  because we're oddballs it's both it's both it's  

the answer to that let's just say we go against  all conventions not just one or two but we just  

go through the whole list so if there is anything  that you are supposed to do or s or supposed to  

how you are supposed to behave or observe the the  things you are supposed to do the social confines  

the etiquette quite often we will break them all  at some point so not in a rude way we're not rude  

people don't get me wrong oh no but we are weird  we're a little strain and when it comes to you  

know if people will know this if your families  are very traditional and they live by very  

fixed rules and ways of behaving anybody in that  family that doesn't behave in that way maybe they  

don't dress uh the way that that family thinks  you should dress maybe you don't say you know you  

don't some families don't like to tell me jokes so  if you don't fall into that and certainly if you  

uh you know play for the other team as tomic  said uh in a family where nobody else does  

or where that way of life is frowned upon or not  looked at as or they don't understand it then uh  

exactly then um you know it you can it's very  difficult at times this and you know these finders  

have been ignored and cut out of social situations  but as long as you've got each other it's  

right okay that was like a ted talk by the way  we reacquainted ourselves with some food that we  

haven't had for a long time this week we had some  juicy delicious [ __ ] yes and i don't know why  

i remember years ago we used to have [ __ ] all  the time didn't we have them every friday or most  

fridays yes and um yes we used to have them  with mashed potatoes and peas it's fresh they  

come frozen you put them in the oven for about  three quarters of an hour and they're made from  

awful pork and awful which is the sort of gum  kidneys kidneys kidneys liver some meat lots of  

lots of meat sauce but they are lovely  we used to have them as a kid my mother  

used to always serve to me as a child that  explains a lot yes so here you can see two [ __ ]  

one two there on the front of the box there's  four in the packet there's two there and another  

two here so there's six [ __ ] all together i  didn't say that i didn't say steve i as as you  

do when you get older you tend to look at all the  ingredients in in food okay and i've discovered  

that these um there's virtually no nutrition  in this product at all it you would think uh  

that uh it says pork [ __ ] on there yes uh they  would be high in protein but in fact there was  

there was hardly any protein in them at all it's  mainly sort of okay see products and gravy okay  

steve but they're still nice i wasn't planning  on talking this long about our meal but yes so  

so if you've never tried them they are quite nice  i do like them they're nice with mashed potatoes  

mashed potatoes and also some peas as well so  yes in fact we made a video where we were cooking  

these did you we've actually got a video on you  remember we've got a video on my youtube channel  

called cooking with [ __ ] and yes that's what  we were doing we were cooking some [ __ ] Louis  

the 17th has given you a lovely donation  a lovely donation has come through  

oh thank you very much louis xiv 17th  louis the 17th thank you very much wow  

a lovely donation come through on the live chat  thank you i do appreciate it yes thank you that  

will be put to good use it will be used for this  it will not go into my pocket it will go into this  

keeping this running hopefully forever and  ever we could buy two packs of [ __ ] yes  

but we won't be we won't be no that's for the  live stream not for my not for my consumption  

your highness says louis yes well yes  because we're in the presence of royalty  

obviously so i feel as if i should  bow or maybe curtsy like a pretty girl  

whereabouts are you in the world uh louis the  17th please tell us are you in well i'm going to  

i'm going to i'm going to america well i'm  going to say friends because it says yes yeah  

i want to say france yes but please tell us where  you are we'd love to know although the donation  

is in us dollars so you might be in the usa you  might be just a fan of of royalty the aristocracy  

your highness what happened to louis the 17th  

don't know did he lose his head uh yes we'll  have to uh we'll have to look that one up  

we have some more bird bird phrases i almost  forgot what we were doing then uh many of our  

lovely viewers have been suggesting ones as well  to us so here's another one feather your nest  

if you feather your nest it means you are doing  things to make yourself comfortable quite often  

concerning money so maybe your salary your your  wages the money you earn you may maybe you put  

some of the money aside you save it you are  feathering your nest you are doing something  

to make yourself more comfortable in life quite  often connected with money you feather your nest  

i like that phrase very nice very nice indeed  here's another one also connected to nests  

fly the nest right so this is when a person  leaves home they leave home maybe a child  

decides to leave home and why are you laughing  mr duncan i don't know i i i'm not sure if fly  

the nest yes that's usually i mean parents use  that phrase to say when their children have left  

um i flew the nest when i was 18. i couldn't  wait to go i heard your mum threw you out  

quite the opposite i think she'd have  had me back any day but of course  

you know you have to leave home eventually  most most people leave home eventually  

uh and you know it's probably a healthy thing  because in nature that's what you would do um  

nothing wrong with living living at home of course  with your parents and a lot of people have to do  

that now because particularly in the uk it's too  expensive to rent or buy a house for young people  

so they have to go back and live with their  parents that's happening a lot shows the  

state of things uh when it comes to affordable  housing in the uk yes i suppose it depends how  

old you are so if you're 18 25 28 and you're  still at home i think that's okay yes why not  

but you i i suppose if you're if you're  much older then it might seem a little  

strange perhaps i was i was looking this up um  the relative cost of a house now is that twice  

what it was sort of 30 years ago because the  price of house price inflation has gone up so much  

over the years i mean just to get on the  ladder now you need i i remember when when  

i had my when i bought a flat my first  place i bought a flat in wolverhampton  

and it cost roughly twice what my annual wages  were and i wasn't earning i was only in a  

you know average well relatively low paid job  at the time i think i was earning about 10 000  

a year back in that would have been the mid  1980s and the flat that i bought was 20 000  

pounds in fact i think it was less than that but  now if i was to buy that flat in wolverhampton now  

i mean imagine in the uk being able to get a  house now for twice what your annual pay was  

it would be very very difficult i don't think  you can be very difficult i don't think you can  

here's another one steve jobs scaring people tomic  is what yes what's that oh yes oh tomek standing  

up for us if we get somebody saying anything nasty  to us oh well you see um they're not likely to say  

anything nasty they're just likely not to talk to  us at all we that's the treatment that we usually  

get they just ignore us they just ostracize we're  just ignored they ostracize so that so this is  

what happens a lot though i mean we're not going  to be all victim don't worry we're not doing that  

i know it's 2020 we will make ourselves we  will make our presence known i know it's  

2022 and everyone wants to be a victim but we're  not doing that we're not going oh poor me nobody  

wants to sit with me we're not doing that we do  we don't do self-pity we stand up for ourselves  

laura's going because she wants to do some cooking  and she's going out to get some wood for her stove  

we'd like to know what you're cooking what you're  going to cook yes of course before you go please  

tell us what you're going to cook uh oh this  is all making mr duncan very hungry i know i'm  

starving the talk of um of beef burgundy of of  of curries in india and obviously we've got laura  

now cooking on her stove and [ __ ] i could just i  could eat a [ __ ] right now i would love to dive  

into a [ __ ] i really would i can't wait i maybe  we should buy some more from the supermarket  

so if there's one thing i really want to sink  my teeth into at the moment it's a lovely big  

juicy [ __ ] palmeira makes a good comment  about the cost of weddings now yes they cost  

awful they're expensive don't do it just just save  the money do it spend it on something else just go  

to the registry office and say i do and i do and  then that's it it's done and save all that money  

don't get into debt by having a wedding you  might get divorced a year later and all that  

money you've spent on your wedding was was just  a waste a lot of people borrow the money and  

then have to pay it back over many years yeah  whereas when for example my mother got married  

she said she bought a dress off somebody else  for a very very cheap price who didn't want  

their who had previously got married uh  and then they would make their own food  

and take it to hirah hall and all the relatives  made the food and took it to the wedding uh i  

i just you know which is what they do in  a lot of countries now still but in the uk  

people spend a fortune like 20 30 000 pounds is  the average amount of money to spend on a wedding  

because they pay everybody else you know they  spent a lot a lot of money on the dress on the  

restaurant on the hotel uh which i suppose is nice  if that's what you want but i prefer to just cook  

my own food keep it simple have people come round  keep it simple and just have a lovely time that's  

it because people like to show off don't they  yeah because that's what it's really about it's  

about saying well our wedding is better than your  wedding our wedding was big we had lots of lovely  

big things and your wedding was small and you had  small things yes it's all about trying to to do  

one thing better than the people that invited you  to their wedding yeah you know you want to sp you  

want to shut it's basically showing off you know  if if you have a grand hotel where your wedding is  

uh and you've got an orchestra there or something  like that then you know effectively it's it's a  

and of course wedding venues know exactly what  buttons to press to get you to uh they've got  

all these things on offer things and they're  basically saying to you look look how you can  

impress all your guests by having this or that  you could have an orchestra here you could have a  

singer you could have you could have the upgraded  meal indoor fireworks all that sort of thing yes  

exactly and it's all about showing off really  i mentioned earlier that you can go for a meal  

after a funeral and yes there is such a thing here  in the uk we often have something called a wake  

which comes after the funeral and people will go  to another place and they will stand around and  

they will eat food and talk about the person who  is no longer there so so yes you can if you are  

if you are very clever you can find out where  the people are going afterwards and then you can  

just go in there and say yes yes i am a relative  of the the young lady and they say no it was a man  

oh okay then uh whatever where's the  food tomex really standing up for us  

today where are the sausage rolls yes and  giving us lots of compliments he says that  

we're like two exotic colourful birds and he  also says a comic which i like i cannot stand  

uptight conservative self-righteous people  no no neither can we i'd rather no exactly i  

just want we just like down to earth ordinary  people who know how to have a good time yes  

and haven't got any sort of pretences or heirs  and graces about them trying to pretend there's  

something they're not trying to behave in a  certain way just like people to be themselves  

that's what that's what i want to be i just  want to be myself and not try and cover up or  

hide my behaviour in order to try and impress  yes other people so that's what that's what i  

always say about myself what you see is what you  get this is not an act this is me you're seeing me  

and that's one of the reasons why your mother  likes me because i don't pretend to be anything  

else your mother always says i like being with  duncan because you know you know what he's you  

know that's the real person you know that's what  it's really like and it is this is what i really  

like in real life a couple of few people have  asked about the cost of housing it's expensive  

all over the uk pretty much i mean it used to be  cheaper the further north you went but that even  

that's starting to even up now london of course  is the most expensive it is yes i think i think  

i think the average house uh certainly if you're  trying to live in the centre of london i think  

the houses or maybe apartments or flats start from  maybe two or three hundred thousand but that's  

something very basic but the average is much  higher than that and so it's not unusual to find  

small houses with maybe one bedroom going or being  asked for at the price of a million pounds plus  

can you believe it so very small houses maybe just  one bedroom in the center of london maybe one of  

the fashionable places in london a million pounds  yeah i mean here it's i i would say the house  

prices here where we live are probably built  slightly but around the average maybe slightly  

below the average because the further into rural  areas you go into the countryside the property  

tends to come down in price so i would  say it's pretty average where we live here  

but inevitably if you go into  towns and cities like in any  

part of the world the cost of the  uh housing will go up substantially

but not here average i would say here average  yes yes it's we're quite lucky here because the  

house prices are much lower and it's it's  not it's not what i would call a popular  

area around here unlike london where everyone  wants to live but of course since the pandemic  

a lot of people are wanting to move out of the  cities into the countryside and that has put the  

prices up in this area where we live they've gone  up quite a lot i've noticed a lot of people not  

so much here because it's a long way from london  but uh some house prices for example on the south  

coast in devon and cornwall the house prices have  gone up like twice huge amounts because people  

are thinking they want to work from home more  now and thus they want to move out of the city  

and have a nicer or what they perceive to be a  nicer way of life more out in the countryside yes  

can i say hello to bella hello bella nice to see  you back i haven't seen you for a while it seems  

like a long time since i've seen bella on the live  chat very nice very nice to see you here today oh  

by the way i suppose this is a good moment to  mention that i do have a new lesson coming up  

during the week it will be published on wednesday  so can i just say that a couple of times just to  

make sure wednesday a new lesson will be  published and there will be a new lesson  

published every wednesday and of course we  are with you as usual on sunday if you like  

watching us why not subscribe why not click the  subscribe button and also don't forget to like  

as well like what you see if you like what  you see so a new lesson coming on wednesday  

uh manisi yes i think certainly switzerland  somebody was asking what's the most expensive  

country okay in the world certainly  switzerland would be up there because  

uh i know from i've always wanted to go  to switzerland but it's very expensive so  

it's what it is for us wanting to go into europe  switzerland would be a very expensive place to go  

but um yes one of the most expensive  places in the world to live is singapore  

they they're right houses incredibly expensive  the cost of living very high but it's also a very  

affluent place as well so singapore one of the  most expensive places in the world to live have  

we finished with the the the bird phrase no i'll  write that i was going to say because i was going  

to mention some of the ones that other people have  yes we have another one now stone the crows and as  

you can see there is an exclamation mark because  it is something you normally say stone the crows  

if you are expressing shock or surprise  something you can't believe you are expressing  

your astonishment stone the crows i can't believe  it so it's often used as an exclamation you could  

have said today uh mr steve appeared uh not in  the studio but in a separate part of the house  

done the crows stoned i wasn't expecting that  stone the crow something you're not expecting  

so you can't i mean it's not used that often  these days but i presume that if you were to  

throw stones at crows that would be unexpected and  thus that's where the phrase may well come from

here's a little bit of um oh yeah birds have you  got have you got this one mr donald i know which  

one you're going to say i i don't think i've  got that one john mentioned that one earlier  

yes you can kill two birds with one stone  yes thank you for that john that's a good  

one if you're still watching yes so that means  to do something effectively or more effectively  

than you had planned so you can kill two  birds with one stone you are doing something  

that will achieve more than  one thing it will bring  

some extra benefit that you weren't expecting  and yes for example you might decide that you  

want to go out and buy a new pair of trousers for  example or buy go and buy some clothes from a shop  

but that one trip only achieves one thing whereas  if you were on the way there or on the way back  

go and visit a relative or a friend then you've  done that same trip but you've achieved two things  

so you've killed two birds with one stone so  that's using time efficiently or you're not  

just using all that petrol for one journey  so yes kill two birds birds with one stone  

use the same amount of effort but achieve  two or more things with it at the same time  

so that's a good one yes kill two  birds with one stone here's another one  

ah you might have a flight of fancy a  flight of fences have a lot of those yes  

so maybe you go off into a fantasy world maybe you  are daydreaming or thinking of something you would  

like to do that may be impossible so a flight  of fancy is when you imagine doing something  

but maybe it is something that will never happen  but you still feel as if you would like to do it  

one day you daydream you think about something you  have a flight a fancy it's a bit like me wanting  

a a forward mustang that could be described  as a flight of fancy it's something that uh i  

often daydream about and want but probably won't  happen uh it could happen but it probably won't  

yeah it's a flight of fancy it's like saying you  want to meet a beautiful person and get married  

i've got a friend who who's always  saying that they want to be he's  

never got married and he wants to meet this  particular girl with has got this particular  

shape figure does this particular job has these  very sort of strict uh ideas about what he wants  

in a girl in a woman and it is just a flight  of fancy because it's never going to happen  

uh because in life things like that don't  happen that's it you're asking for too much  

you're asking for too much it's a flight of  fantasy here we go we've got two more okay  

we forgot to go yes before we go well well i was  10 minutes late you see right so i was 10 minutes  

late so we do have a little naughty mr duncan yes  well naughty computer yeah you're expecting mr  

duncan's live stream to start bang on two o'clock  is a flight of fancy well don't complain to me  

complain to my computer so that's all i can say  here's another one connected to birds to be chirpy  

a person this describes a person's character or  the way they behave their characteristic chirpy  

a person who's often happy quite optimistic about  the future they will look forward to things they  

are chirpy hi hello there nice to see you again  i hope you're feeling good today i i feel really  

chirpy it's like a bird that's chirping singing  it's something that you like it's something that  

you're attracted to it's something that makes  you feel happy so if people are if you describe  

somebody as chirpy it means they're like a  bird that's singing you know they're happy  

and therefore you're happy and everybody's happy  at the same time yes chirpy just feeling good  

and outgoing and confident and just in a  good mood and expressing that to everyone  

else around you person is chirpy buoyant that's  another one buoyant they are happy bella says  

dreaming of meeting both of you in person is a  flight of fantasy well maybe not when we go on  

our world tour anyway but yes which we're not  if you're yeah i can understand why you would  

say that if you're living a long way away and the  chances of us coming to your country are probably  

less because it's a long yes i could see how you  would describe that but you know all good things  

sometimes come to those who wait yes and  not everything is a fantasy not everything  

is a flight of fancy sometimes things  can come true you might win the lottery  

here's the final one as the crow flies as  the crow flies it is the shortest distance  

between two places so as the crow flies we  are saying that that is the direct route  

so you are not taking the road you are not going  all around the mountains you are going straight  

from one place to another you are measuring  the distance as the crow flies directly  

without going all around the lanes and the roads  yes people sometimes use that ex they might say oh  

the next village is is five kilometers away  and you might say is that as the crow flies  

meaning is that you know if you walked  over the fields and everything and went  

on a straight line uh because that that's  a different measure to how far it would be  

on a road so yes as the crow flies uh the most  direct the shortest route to a destination  

probably not always the route that you could  take but the shortest route nonetheless  

so there they were some lovely phrases connected  to birds can i say once again a big thank you  

a very big thank you for the special donation  that came through last week from federico federico  

garmendia mendiola for your lovely donation thank  you so much that has made me very happy and my  

work will be able to continue for much longer  because of that so thank you very much federica  

for your super duper donation and if you want  to make a donation there it is my paypal account  

my paypal address for all of your donations and  of course you can also make donations right here  

live on on the super chat of course for louie the  17th today yes louis the 17th thank you very much

what could i say our our king  yes king louis yes king Louie

yes uh bella we will make you chirpy once we come  to brazil i think so and of course you know that  

was the first place i always said i wanted to  go uh to to brazil wasn't it but that was only  

to meet a certain person who we don't see very  often anymore but could well be still watching  

it's only because you don't show flags of  the world that's the that's the only reason  

we don't see this person anymore okay but lovely  and it was lovely to be with you all today are  

we wrapping up mr duncan in a moment um you you  might be able to notice that the oh the christmas  

tree in the other room for those who missed it  earlier here it is here is the christmas tree  

again oh isn't that lovely and now you can see  the lights are really shining because we are now  

losing the light outside it's starting to get  dark and there you can see the christmas tree  

we still have the christmas tree up for all those  who are celebrating christmas slightly later than  

everyone else so i thought we would do that today  and i thought it went very well and let's hope  

it's not bad luck thank you mr steve for holding  the fort and doing such a wonderful job of of  

your live link from the christmas tree can i just  mention tomic has mentioned a very appropriate  

um phrase connected with birds oh okay that in  fact is very much connected with what we've been  

talking about today about the sort of people  that we like to be with and the sort of people  

that we all are i think on our on this live  stream uh birds of a feather flock together  

yes ah very good i like that one very good phrase  and very pertinent very relevant to today because  

we've been talking about the sort of people that  we like to associate with uh and it is true that  

people with asset with the same behaviours  the same mindset the same outlook on life  

tend to end up being friends and uh  associating with each other yes and  

birds of a feather stick or flock together yes  people like-minded people and the people lovely  

people that we have on our live stream i we always  say this even afterwards are the sort of people  

that have the same outlook on life that we do and  they're just open honest down-to-earth people and  

we love you all yes we often talk about you  we do we often talk about lewis and claudia  

and christina we often talk about everyone  we we we often talk about palmyra and nassar  

atomic and tomic so we do it we often talk about  it all of you we can't mention everybody maria

we often talk about you during our normal life if  we're we're sitting having a meal we do yes we're  

chatting because i think we are all like-minded  people just like just like you are friends or  

close family yes yes we often say oh did what  about did you see the comment by such and such  

we often talk about you quite a lot  outside the live stream and it's just  

as i say every week it's lovely to be here and  mr duncan has created this lovely community of  

friends you are all friends yeah and uh valued  people to know and we love doing it we do  

so on that note i'm going to say my goodbyes for  today i hope you've enjoyed today's live stream  

and i look forward to seeing you all again next  week thank you mr steve we will see you next  

sunday from 2pm uk dime don't forget we are  together every single sunday don't miss it  

and there's mr steve it's almost  time to go thank you mr steve for  

for cutting the grass it's almost time to say  goodbye i hope you've enjoyed today's live stream  

and it's almost time to go i think it is  starting to rain we might be getting some rain  

or even some snow later on oh fancy pants  thank you for your company i will see you  

next sunday don't forget there will also be a  new lesson which will be published on wednesday  

so from now on there will be a new lesson every  wednesday that will be posted on my youtube  

channel and of course we will be back together  next week as well i'm going to leave you with  

my lovely little robin my new friend that i met  yesterday we have seen the robin quite a few times  

and yesterday i decided to do a little bit of  filming so i will leave you with with our little  

feathery friend and i will see you next week  thanks for your company stay happy stay cheerful  

keep that smile upon your face as you move around  the human race and i will see you very soon and  

of course until the next time we meet here on  youtube you know what is coming next yes you do

ta ta for now