📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you lost an important and valuable item

This episode's vocabulary

Slip up (phrasal verb) - to make a mistake.

Planner (noun) - a document or software program that helps you plan something.

To not be thinking straight (idiom) - to not be thinking clearly or using good judgment.

To give a moment's thought (phrase) - means to briefly consider or think about something, even if only for a short time.

Orderly (adj.) - well arranged or organized.

To keep something to hand (phrase) - to keep something with you or near you, ready to use when needed.

To fish something out (phrasal verb) - if you fish something out from somewhere, you take or pull it out, often after searching for it for some time.

Vague (adj.) - not clearly expressed, known, described, or decided.

From memory (idiom) - If you say something, such as a poem, or sing a song from memory, you speak or sing without looking at any words or music.

Distraught (adj.) - extremely worried, nervous, or upset.

Thrilled (adj.) - extremely happy about something.

Possession (noun) - the fact that you have or own something.

To keep track (idiom) - to make certain that you know what is happening or has happened to someone or something.

Questions and Answers

R: Well, I'm usually quite good at keeping track of things, but sometimes even I slip up and can't find what I'm looking for. Most recently, I accidentally left my diary planner at the school I was working in. This was just last month towards the end of a training course I was delivering and I was quite tired and not thinking straight, so I put my diary down and just left without giving a moment's thought. And since I'm quite an orderly and organized person, it's really important for me to have my diary to hand all the time so I can make decisions about my work hours and how my day is planned. So I'm usually good about keeping it to hand at all times. Needless to say, when I realized I didn't have it with me after I got home, it was like someone had cut my right arm off, and at that point, the school had closed so I couldn't go back to find it, and I had to wait the next day, or I had to wait until the next day and fish it out of the pile of stuff that I'd left it in. Despite having a vague idea about where it was, I was still rather anxious about losing it and never finding it again. I didn't want to have to work from memory to go about my day. Since I usually, well, I write things in my diary so I don't have to remember them, and I can free up my memory for other more important things. So that was a very long 12-hour period when I was without it, I suppose. On the plus side, I was able to come up with some good ways to deal with the loss, and I did get it back again eventually, after the school reopened and I was able to go in and find it. However, if I hadn't been able to find it, I would have been pretty distraught about the whole experience. So, well, you can imagine how thrilled I was to have it back in my possession. I'll never let it get out of my sight again, and just in case it does happen, I made a point of writing a few notes on my Google calendar as well to help me keep track of exactly everything that I need to do.