📕 Part 1: Rest

This episode's vocabulary

Decompress (verb) - to relax.

Time off (noun) - a period of time when you do not work because of illness or holidays.

Peruse (verb) - to read through something, especially in order to find the part you are interested in.

Me time (noun) - time when you can do what you want to do.

Siesta (noun) - a rest or sleep taken after lunch, especially in hot countries.

Catnap (noun) - a short sleepy.

Groggy (adj.) - weak and unable to think clearly or walk correctly, usually because of tiredness or illness.

Reconnect (verb) - to join or be joined with something else again after becoming separated.

Stroll (verb) - to walk in a slow relaxed way, especially for pleasure.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, how often do you take a rest?

R: God, probably not often enough. Although I'm getting better at decompressing and taking time off. Oh, and highlighting that to people and encouraging them to do the same. For example, in terms of exercise, I used to think it was important to work out every day and then I realized it's actually important to have some rest days to promote muscle growth and recovery. So now I have weekends off.

M: What do you do when you take a rest?

R: Bit of a nerd, actually. I watch videos on YouTube or I read comics and chat to my friends. I'm lucky that I have people like them actually who are pretty chilled out and they agree that relaxing is quite an important thing to do. A lot of people are like, you need to work all the time and you must be busy and doing things. But I'm lucky my friends understand the value of some me time.

M: Do you take a nap when you have a rest?

R: No, although I can see why siestas and catnaps are popular, but I always feel really unwell when I do that, so I try and avoid it. One solid block of sleep is enough for me. Although and I do get it, it's like seven to eight hours. That's fine.

M: How do you feel after taking a nap?

R: Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of them. When I have taken them, I felt groggy and not very energized, which is the point of it, although I suppose the counter argument is that maybe I'm not napping for long enough. And that's the actual problem, although I don't know how on earth you would prove that.

M: When was the last time you took a rest and what did you do?

R: Well, I just had a huge month off there, where I didn't do much extra work and I reconnected with the people in my life. And that was a lot of fun to do that reconnecting, and writing, and playing video games, and sometimes just looking at the window and watching the world go by. People watching. It's great fun.

M: When will you take a rest next time?

R: Well, I think in the summer, when I move back to Scotland. So in July and August I'd like to take some time to stroll through the forests, and the hills, and along the beaches of my hometown, and just listen to the waves breaking outside my house. It's been a long time since I was there, and I think a lot must have changed. So somewhere in Scotland seems like a good time to do this and just disconnect for a while.

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Discussion

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers. They are music to our ears. So when we talk about having a rest, we talk about decompressing. That should be your favorite word as a synonym for rest. To rest, to have a rest, to decompress, to relax, to chill. What else can we say?

R: Just gonna list words, synonyms for taking a rest.

M: Yes. Forever now.

R: Yes. But those are all the ones that we... Yes, that's all. That's all we need. It's fine. You've listed all of them.

M: Bye!

R: I think we're done here.

M: Yeah, I'm going to have a rest now. So different people prefer different ways of having a rest. Rory enjoys working out, so to work out every weekend.

R: Well, or not to work out every weekend.

M: Have a rest from working out.

R: Yes, which is actually quite a crucial part of it. People have this idea that you have to be consistently doing everything every day. But actually, no, you have to take a rest day. And I hate rest days because I have like lots of energy and I don't know what to do with it. Except come to the world's most poorly decorated studio and record something with you guys for six hours.

M: On a Sunday.

R: On a Sunday as well. We're not even in church.

M: Yeah. So you can have your weekend off. So a day off, it means that you don't work on this day. So have a day off. You can have a Monday off.

R: You can have time off.

M: You can have a time off. Yes. Or you can have a weekend off. Meaning you're pretty much doing nothing but relaxing.

R: Just make sure you pronounce it correctly.

M: Yeah.

R: Not a weekend of, a weekend off. You can have a weekend of fun.

M: Mm hmm. Yeah.

R: We are having a weekend of fun.

M: Oh, yeah. Totally.

R: So much fun.

M: A lot of, too much fun. Stop it, stop it.

R: Far too much.

M: Yeah. So you do need to know names of different activities that you enjoy doing while you are resting. Watch videos, read comics.

R: I said read. I should have said peruse. Peruse is a band nine word.

M: Oh, yeah. Definitely, peruse. What do you do when you peruse comics. Just look at the pictures?

R: Basically. I just like look through all the different comics that are available and pick one. So if you're looking through things, you're perusing them. You can peruse the shops as well. Window shopping, it's called.

M: Yes. And what's your favorite comic book?

R: Um. Oh, my God. They just released the new aliens comic books. Sorry, I'm a nerd, but it's good because it's the publisher is now marvel. So the quality of the, well, just the overall quality of the comics is quite good. Some fans disagree, but they're wrong, so that's fine.

M: How many comics do you have at home.

R: I don't have any. It's all online.

M: Online?

R: Yes. It's the great thing about Russia. There's no intellectual property protection.

M: He hasn't said that. OK? It's a lie.

R: Yeah, you can get whatever you want for free.

M: Whatever we download it's legal. It's, well, we pay for it. OK. We have laws in this country.

R: Pay for it in terms of time served in prison.I don't care. I'm not a citizen. I'll just get deported.

M: When you take a rest, you can take a nap. And again, and nap is a short period of sleep that you usually take during the day. It's like siesta, right?

R: Yes, although a nap and a siesta are different things. The siesta is something that's common in Mediterranean culture. It's an afternoon nap, whereas a nap can be a short sleep for any period of time.

M: So you say to map or to take a nap. But Rory prefers one solid block of sleep.

R: Yes, a solid block of time. It's where just like sleep happens.

M: He's a solid man.

R: It's such a great, nice byword for fat.

M: No, if you are fat, I'd say, Oh, Rory, you're a unit. I would call you a unit.

R: I like that, if Rory were fat, I would tell you because I'm a nice person.

M: Yeah. I just like I would tell it to your face. No, you're fine.

R: I would tell it to your face and all five of your chins.

M: You can say that I'm not a huge fan of naps. I feel groggy after napping.

R: We've talked about groggy before. Haven't we?

M: Yeah, we did, we did. So we're not going to explain it anymore. So just find the episode and listen to it.

R: It was the episode about sleep.

M: Yeah. Why are you repeating all the words?

R: Well, it's important that we recycle the vocabulary so people are exposed to it in different context for their exam, for a high score.

M: Band nine score. Quality and quality. Yes, dear listener. So the fact is that, again, some question, some vocabulary is repeated because we used to have this topic of sleep. Now the topic is rest. And in this topic, they ask you about having naps and it's now happening in IELTS speaking exam. So that's why.

R: And also sometimes I run out of ideas for vocabulary.

M: Right. So we can say that I reconnect with people in my life.

R: You do reconnect with people. Sometimes you work a lot and you're not able to see people. So you get a bit distant from them and you have to get close to them again and reconnect.

M: But also, it's important to have you time.

R: Me time.

M: Yes, to have me time. I'll say I need to have some Maria time or no, I can't meet you today because I'm having some Maria time.

R: You say this to people?

M: Oh yeah, definitely.

R: Oh, my God. I never say that, I always make up an excuse like I'm sick.

M: No, I tell the truth because seriously, we do need to have some our time. Only like for ourselves. So you can say like using this language creatively, you could say, I need to have some Maria time. Rory says I need to have what? Rory, what do you say?

R: I need to have some me time. No, I say, I say I can't come on a date tonight. I'm ill.

M: Oh, he's lying.

R: Unless you're going on a date with me, then you don't need me time. Then you need to get to that bar and pay for my drinks.

M: We can also watch the world go by, just stare out of the window and just watch the world go by, you can indulge in people watching. How do you do people watching? What's your secret?

R: People watching? You just sit in a cafe and watch people and how weird they are.

M: Do you gossip about them? Do you discuss them?

R: It depends. If you're by yourself, then you can just watch people randomly. But if you're with somebody, then you can talk about what people are wearing, for example. By the way, I should say, people watching isn't always people saying malicious things. Malicious is just not very nice. It can also just be like, oh, look, that person is wearing a nice dress, for example. Usually it's Maria walking past at that stage. If that person's well dressed, it must be Maria.

M: Oh, how sweet, how sweet. We can also stroll in forests, in the forests. Stroll in the forest.

R: You can walk past me, people watching and you can also stroll in the forest, which is exactly what I'm doing. Strolling is a leisurely walk, which just means there is no purpose behind it except for the experience of walking. Go for a stroll in the forest, but you go for a stroll in the forest. But you don't go for a stroll in the beach. You go along the beach because the beach is long. If you go for a stroll in the beach, then it's like you're walking in the sand, which is not a pleasant experience.

M: You didn't talk about Netflix, so you don't watch any series?

R: We already talked about Russia's intellectual property laws. We can't do it again.

M: No, we pay for Netflix. OK?

R: I don't pay for anything that I watch online.

M: Oh, he doesn't mean it, he doesn't mean it. Hopefully. Rory, but don't you think that now when people are having a rest, they're kind of like passive, they're just watching the telly lying on the couch.

R: They could be a couch potato.

M: Couch potato, yeah.

R: Yeah. So you could say that, like I'm an active person or I'm a passive person and then describe what those different people do. I'm an active person, I go for a walk. I am a passive person, I like to sit on the couch and be a couch potato.

M; Yeah, sometimes I have my weekends off and become a couch potato. Why not? You know. And I have some me time, so hopefully you will have some you time. Some quality time.

R: To research and practice our quality grammar and vocabulary.

M: Yes.

R: For a high score.

M: Band nine score.

R: Quality Along the way. Oh, and also Scotland freedom. You may be wondering why we're using all of these phrases consecutively, which means one after the other. And we will explain that in a few months.

M: Oh, thank you for listening!

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

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