📕 Part 1: Home decoration

What kind of decoration do you prefer?

To be honest, I wasn't aware there were different kinds until you asked that question. I'm a very go-with-the-flow person. So provided the decorations aren't too gaudy or in your face, then I really don't mind them or whatever style they are.

Is there any artwork on the wall in your room?

Yeah, there's some in my bedroom. I have a caricature of myself by a local artist. And there are three panels from a locally produced comic strip. And then there's various pieces of artwork or artefacts on display from various places I've been to as well.

Would you use mirrors to decorate your room?

I don't think I'm that much of a narcissist that I need mirrors everywhere. One is probably enough to check my outfit in the morning. And that's about it.

When was the last time you redecorated your home?

I don't think I've ever decorated in order to redecorate, to be honest. My parents have made a lot of changes to my childhood home over the years, which makes sense since the previous decor was done by a voodoo priestess. And I'm not even making that up. We used to find dolls' heads in the walls and in the garden.

Will you redecorate it in the future?

I don't have any plans to. I'm like the least aesthetically oriented person you've ever met. So I imagine my future home will be adorned with endless bookshelves and storage space. Anything else would be the responsibility of whatever poor unfortunate is living with me.

Do people in your country enjoy redecorating their homes?

I have absolutely no idea. I would imagine so. Given how often people post about things like that on social media. But that's just a few 100 people I know. I suppose it's better to be houseproud than not, though, so I would say yes.

Thank you Rory for your decorative answers! They were decoration to our lives!

And decorated with band nine vocabulary! -

Shall we talk about our decorative vocabulary and grammar?

Yes. So you said that decorations shouldn't be too gaudy.

Yeah, but that just means they're not very, well, they're just over the top, too flashy or in your face. Like I said.

what else could be gaudy? For example, can my clothes be gaudy? Gaudy clothes.

Your clothes specifically? No. People who show off too much? Yes, they have gaudy clothes.

Yeah, it's kind of like yellow jacket, I don't know, red dress, green shoes. Blue hair. So yeah, that would be gaudy, you know, like too bright and not really positive. And Rory said that, you know, I'm a very go-with-the-flow person. So Rory goes with the flow. I'm a very go-with-the-flow person, which means what? You go with the flow.

That just means that I just, I don't get overly stressed about things. So I just see what's happening and where things are going and follow on from that.

So you feel the flow and just go with it.

Yeah.

You feel the universe and just decorate the house, you know, just say, okay, like I'm not overly fussed about it. So yeah, it happens. It happens. Maria gives me her painting. Okay, I just put it on the wall. Maria doesn't give me her painting. I don't put it on the wall.

If you did give me the painting, that would be good.

No.

If people send me stuff, I would put it on my walls. But I have no idea what they would send. Oh no, that's a dangerous thing to say, isn't it? Actually?

Yes, Rory, because you should give us your address so we can ship things to you.

The address part isn't the part I'm most scared of the part I'm most afraid of is what people would send me I have no idea. Like it could get really... What's the word? There could be like quite a mishmash of styles going on.

A mishmash of styles. Yeah. So if you have like modern art and cubism. And some ancient artefacts and everything in one place, it's a mishmash of styles. Yeah, that's a nice one. A mishmash. So for example, yeah, at home, I have a mishmash of different styles, because people give me things and I just keep everything. So it's a mishmash. And then what artwork do you have on the wall in your room? And Rory said that I have a caricature of myself. So that would be nice if you show us this caricature of yourself, Rory. Maybe on social media, you take a photo.

How about this? If you're interested to see this then you can drop me a line on my Instagram and I will send you a picture of it.

Ah, okay, so very, you know, exclusive. Exclusive.

Well, yes, that's my way of engaging with my audience, which I'm told this is how it's done.

No, I have to write to him and then he will send me this caricature. Alright, fine.

And then Maria will post it on her Instagram and that would be...

Yeah, yeah, so caricature. Like a picture, you know, a funny picture of Rory. How selfish and narcissist.

It's not, it wasn't me, that asked for it. It was a gift for my birthday. So it was... This one's not on me.

Ah, it's not of you?

It is, it is of me. But I didn't commission it. It was just something that someone had done for me.

And also, Rory has three panels from a local comic strip, right?

So a panel is like a section of the comic. And the comic strip is the whole thing.

So you can have different artefacts, photographs, paintings, drawings. Again, if you don't have anything, you can just use some of the Rory's ideas and just say, okay, I have a caricature of myself or I have some pictures. I have some handmade stuff. And then the question is, would you use mirrors to decorate your room? Mirrors again! Yay! Yeah. So, and Rory said, I don't think I'm that much of a narcissist. Narcissist, yeah?

That just means someone who's obsessed with their appearance. It's not a nice thing to be. But yes, if you've got mirrors all over your house so you can check your appearance, that's how you look, then that's not so great.

Yeah. Can you imagine a room decorated with mirrors? Like mirrors everywhere. On the ceiling, on the floor, on the walls. So yeah, but maybe you do have many mirrors. So it's okay. Like yeah, I would like to have lots of different mirrors, ornate mirrors, mirrors of different shapes and colour, and glass. So yeah, go ahead and say that.

What kind of mirrors did you say?

Ornate?

Oh, ornate. Okay.

Ornate, yeah?

Yeah.

So different, you know, like... And different shapes.

They like, look like ornaments, to be honest. I don't think there's a specific style, is there?

No, no. So kind of like mirrors with ornaments. Yeah, with different patterns. Yeah. And, yeah, so we can check out our outfit in the morning or just use them for decoration. Why not? And then there's a verb. So we decorate our house with different things. We put things on the walls, and also we redecorate our home. So what does it mean? If we redecorate our home?

It just means that you've, well, you've had it decorated and then you do something different with it. You change the decorations, or you change the style of the decorations.

So does it mean that I change the wallpaper, I change colours. And...

Well, probably not everything... Well, it could be everything all at once. But it could also just be a certain thing that you're having done like you could just be changing the wallpaper or you could be changing all of the pictures. Redecoration is like a... There are different kinds of redecoration. It could be really comprehensive, or it could just focus on one thing.

Yeah, if you change the furniture, if you change your carpets or sofas, also the wallpaper, yeah, you can say like, alright, redecorate my house. Or if you pay other people to redecorate your house, you can say, I'd like to have my house redecorated. Redecorated. Yep. If you pay other people and they do it for you.

Yeah, you pay a decorator.

The previous decor.

We've talked about this before, I think. The decor. It's just like another way of talking about aspects of decoration in the house.

You can also speak about interior design. So the interior design of my house is simplistic. I prefer minimalism. Yeah? So there's no artwork anywhere. So it's just me and the furniture. And then what would you like to do in the future? You can say, okay, I'd like to have my house redecorated. I'd like to change the wallpaper or to add some, I don't know, wooden sculptures or artwork on the walls. So you can say that, and then you can say that I'm... If no, then Rory said that I'm the least...

Aesthetically oriented. That just means someone who focuses on the design and look of something. And I don't focus on this at all, I don't care. Aesthetics. Aesthetics is how something looks.

Aesthetically. Aesthetics, aesthetically oriented person. So Rory doesn't care about...

Aesthetics.

Aesthetics. Aesthetics. Rory doesn't care about cars, about advertisement, about what? Art galleries.

Any other just late-stage capitalist nonsense, I don't care about it, which you will know about if you subscribed to our premium. There's an episode where we talk about this in a lot of detail.

Nice. Nice one. Yeah. And you said that my future home will be adorned with. So my future flat will be adorned, adorned with what? With bookshelves.

But that just means like it's covered, like that's the decoration that I'm going for. It's a bit ironic of course, because how decorative can your bookshelves be? But that is what I will have. I'll have lots of books, and then I don't care what anything else looks like. It will be fine.

Yeah, so you can say that my future house will be adorned with books, or I would like to decorate my future house with nice books, written by Rory. If you are house proud, what are you?

That just means you're proud of your home. And so you want it to look nice. But I am not house proud. I don't really focus on how things look. I mean, it will be tidy and clean, but it's not going to be like looking particularly outstanding.

What else do usually people use to decorate their homes and their flats? What else can we use? Like plants?

It's usually like, yeah, plants, photographs.

Paintings.

Yeah. Ornaments.

Souvenirs. So I have different souvenirs. And also I have candles, for example. And what do you call this thing, that you put a candle? So you put it inside.

Candle holder?

Yeah. So candle holders. Anything else?

You could decorate your home with anything. And provided you've done it to improve the look at the place. Anything you've added to improve how it looks for other people is decoration.

Yeah. And also if you don't, then you can say I wish I could decorate my house with, right? Or I wish my house were brighter or I wish I could have money to buy a new wallpaper or I wish I could redecorate my house. So you see? And also kind of negative. My house is not decorated with, or my flat is not adorned with something. Right. Dear listener, thank you very much! Now you do know what to say, if you don't just candleholders.

And if you don't like decorating, well, just listen to my answers. It'll be fine because I don't like decorating either.

Thank you so much! We love you! Bye!

Bye! See you next week! - Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff: Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi