This episode’s vocabulary
Organized
adj. — an organized person is able to plan things carefully and keep things tidy.
To come across something
phrasal verb — to find something by chance.
Inexpensive
adj. — not costing a lot of money.
To keep hold of something
phrase — not to let go of something.
To pile on
phrasal verb — to increase quickly.
Promptly
adverb — quickly, without delay, or at the arranged time.
To hand something over
phrasal verb — to give something to someone else.
Questions and answers
Rory, hello!
Hello! I'm ready to talk about the thing I lost.
Rory story. Off you go.
Oh, wow, I've really had to think about this one. Because it's not every day that this sort of thing happens, to be honest. Most of the people I know are pretty organized and don't lose things, and even if they do, or even if someone does lose something, then it's someone else who picks it up. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that one time, though, I came across someone's earbuds on the bus home from work one day. I think that was back in 2020. Probably the winter. I'm not really sure. It was a staff bus that took us to and from the school where we worked. So it was easy to guess the person who might have lost them would be one of my colleagues. I mean, who else could it be? Anyway, I was just getting up to get off the bus. And I noticed the case just sitting there. When I took a closer look, I realized they were Apple, oh, AirPods. I think they're called that officially at least. And they are definitely not inexpensive and someone wouldn't have just casually left them lying around. So I asked around, but they didn't belong to anyone who was still on. So I, well, I just assumed that they must have belonged to someone who already got off. So I kept hold of them until the following day when people were piling on and made a point of asking them, or at least the ones I didn't speak to the previous day if the earbuds belonged to them, it was just a process of elimination, really. And sure enough, after about five tries, one lady told me they were hers. And I promptly handed them over. She was really happy since they were quite expensive like I said, and she liked having them in... Well, she liked having them in when she was doing things around the house. Or when she was lesson planning. It helped her block out any distractions. It was great being able to help a colleague, but I like to think even if I hadn't done it myself, then someone else would have done the same. We were a pretty good team like that. Everybody helped each other out with no problems at all.