This episode’s vocabulary
Flat warming
noun — a party that you give when you move into a new house.
To come along
phrasal verb — to arrive or appear at a place.
Quiet the
phrase — used for emphasis.
Character
noun — someone whose behaviour is different from most people's, especially in a way that is interesting or funny.
To rock up
phrasal verb — to arrive somewhere.
Remarkably
adverb — used to emphasize how surprising or unusual something is.
To come away
phrasal verb — to have a particular feeling or idea or be in a particular condition at the end of an experience.
To top up
phrasal verb — to add liquid in order to fill to the top a container that is already partly full.
To integrate
verb — to mix with and join a society or a group of people, often changing to suit their way of life, habits, and customs.
To be smooth sailing
idiom — to be easy and without problems.
Gesture
noun — an action that expresses your feelings or intentions, although it might have little practical effect.
All the same
idiom — despite what has just been said.
Questions and answers
Oh, God, I mean, it's been a while since I've met anyone at a party. I mean, I usually meet them in quieter environments. Oh yes, I met my friend Ani at one of my flat warmings. Actually, that's rather ironic, since you'd think you'd meet people before you let them into your home. But this was the rare exception because my best friend had met him and asked if he could come along. So I said yes, and I'm very glad I agreed to it, actually, since he turned out to be quite the character. He's just moved to my hometown from England to join the marketing department at one of our universities, and he didn't know many people. Anyway, when he rocked up at my house with my other friends, we got to talking, and it turned out we had remarkably similar views about how things should work and the reasons why they didn't, especially when it comes to running a business. They also compared music tastes, and even though we had nothing in common in that area, we still enjoyed the conversation and came away with a few recommendations. This is interspersed with occasional breaks to top up drinks and chat to other people, but I still really enjoyed coming back to talking about different things with him and making him feel involved. It was good to help someone integrate better into the local community and see them enjoying themselves. He wasn't quite all smooth at sailing, though, since he accidentally knocked over a champagne glass, but I wasn't terribly bothered about it, frankly. Where I'm from, they're quite cheap. Despite that, the next day, a delivery of new champagne flutes turned up from him to say sorry, which was completely unnecessary, but a very nice gesture all the same. And it was actually quite helpful, because I discovered I didn't have enough champagne flutes for other parties, so it really helped. So I'm really glad I decided to make friends with him, and we've met for coffee and drinks a few times since then, and hopefully we will in the future. It's nice to meet someone new.
And do you often meet this person now?
Yeah, like I say, we go for coffee quite regularly.