📙 Part 2: Describe a useful object in your home that you cannot live without

You should say: What it is, what you can do with it, how often you use it, and explain why you cannot live without it.

This episode's vocabulary

Stuffed (adj.) - (of a person) having eaten enough or too much.

Boiler (noun) - a device that heats water, especially to provide heating and hot water in a house.

To act up (phrasal verb) - if a machine or part of the body acts up, it does not perform as well as it should.

Grossly (adverb) - extremely.

Plumbing (noun) - the water pipes and similar systems in a building.

Mould (noun) - a soft, green or grey growth that develops on old food or on objects that have been left for too long in warm, wet air.

Thermostat (noun) - a device that keeps a building, engine, etc. within a limited temperature range by automatically switching the supply of heat on and off.

Uninhabitable (adj.) - not habitable (= suitable to live in).

Horrendous (adj.) - extremely unpleasant or bad.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, hello!

R: Hello! It's me.

M: Give us your story. Rory story.

R: Well, I think I would be pretty stuffed without my boiler, to be honest. Which I discovered recently after it was acting up. I'm going to grossly oversimplify this and just say a boiler is a machine you have in your home, which is responsible for keeping it heated. In many homes in my country it's connected to the plumbing system, which keeps the hot water hot, and the fluid in the radiators and the pipes warm. And without it, your home would freeze or mould might start growing over it, both of which are very serious health hazards. In some homes, it also keeps the shower water warm. But I have a separate electric shower system for this. It's not really something you can ever afford to have off since I live in a cooler country. And I use hot water to clean plates and cutlery. So I would say it's pretty much in constant use. But the peak times are probably at night, especially in the winter when the temperature drops. Oh, actually, thinking about it, it has to work to keep the cold at bay during the day as well. It's attached to a device called a thermostat which helps regulate the temperature. So if you turn it up, then it makes the temperature go up in the house. And if you turn it down, then the temperature will go down naturally. Don't ask me how any of that works, though. It's like magic. And I'm very grateful to the plumbers and the engineers who came around to my house to help keep it running, and who probably will keep it running in the future. If I didn't have this thing in my house, it would probably be completely uninhabitable to humans. You literally cannot live in a house in Scotland without one of these. Which I think is a different thing in many countries. Because heating is centrally controlled in a lot of countries that I've been to. One time last winter it stopped working and I almost bankrupted myself using electric heaters to try and stop the house from freezing. It was horrendous. I'm so glad it's something that doesn't happen very often.

M: Hey, and what would you do if it breaks down?

R: Well, I have boiler insurance now. So I think I would just call the insurance company and they would send someone to help me.

Discussion

M: So, dear listener, Rory talked about boiler. And a useful object in your home could be a washing machine. It could be your, I don't know, coffeemaker, your rice maker.

R: A coffeemaker is not an essential item. Come on.

M: It is essential. Like you can't live without coffee, dear listener, alright? Or you can't live without your favourite digital massive home cinema. This is essential for your life. Okay? Maybe a bed. You can't live without your bed. Alright? Or maybe your pillow. So pretty much like anything.

R: It will be difficult to explain like how often you use it and what you can do with it if you talk about your bed, though.

M: Yeah. So, dear listener, here, you should pick an object that is easy for you to talk about. Or just repeat Rory's story. Also like pretend it's the boiler. Alright? Which is like an unusual item, I'd say. And Rory started it off with, I think I would be pretty stuffed without my boiler, to be honest. So I would be pretty stuffed. What did you mean?

R: I'd be in a lot of trouble, because, well, I need my boiler to work in order to live in my home. And if I don't have it, then I cannot live here.

M: And I discovered that I can't live without my boiler after it was acting up. So to act up. If my computer acts up, what happens?

R: It just doesn't work properly. It might start working okay and then stop and then start again. So it's not consistent.

M: And then to give more details about the boiler, you can say like I'm going to grossly oversimplify this. So oversimplify? To make it super simple. Maybe too simple. And like grossly. Grossly? Here in this context it means...

R: Just do something a lot, probably too much. So if I'm grossly oversimplifying, then I'm simplifying something way too much. But I don't know much about my boiler. I just know that I need it to live.

M: Right. So a boiler is a machine you have in your home which is responsible for keeping it heated. Like, your home heated or what?

R: All of it, really, because my plumbing and my heating is water-based. So it depends on water circulating around the house in order to work, then it does everything for the water, really.

M: Yeah. And it's connected to the plumbing system. So plumbing is all about these tubes, about water, about your bathroom. And when something breaks down in your bathroom with this like water and tubes, your bathtub, you call a plumber, a person who fixes it. You know, plumbing is spelt with... So plumbing. But we say plumbing. Not plumbBing. No, no, no. Plumbing. And without this boiler, my home would freeze. Okay? It will be very cold without this boiler.

R: But important since we're talking about the alternative that did not happen we use would. So without this thing, something would happen. Without my boiler, my home would freeze. Without my coffee machine, I would have caffeine withdrawal and die, apparently, allegedly. All of that is I think very silly, but okay.

M: Or like without your juice maker, for example. You just drink fresh juices.

R: That's not a thing.

M: You can't live without it. You know? And...

R: Oh, my God, buy an orange and just eat the orange.

M: Or without your fridge, dear listener. You know?

R: Okay, the fridge is important. Yes.

M: Yeah. Or maybe you enjoy your shower. Without my shower, I'd be dead, you know? Well, I'll get all dirty, and then I'll die. Yeah, you can exaggerate, dear listener. You know? But like, imagine that this object would be removed from your flat, like your bed. Or just your kitchen. So it's your choice, dear listener. So back to the boiler. The boiler keeps the shower water warm.

R: In some places, it doesn't do that for me. I have a separate system for this.

M: And this boiler is not the thing you can ever afford to have off. To have it off. Like to have it switched off? Or like not to have it at all?

R: To have it off would mean to have it switched off.

M: So, dear listener, if you have, for example, like air conditioning, okay? And you live in Thailand, where it's like very hot. Usually. So you can say like, ooh, I can't afford to have my air conditioning off. I can't afford to have it off. I can't afford to have air conditioning switched off, because otherwise, it's going to be very hot, and I'll die of heat.

R: I think that does happen in some countries, though. So that's a very important thing to draw attention to.

M: Rory uses hot water to clean plates and cutlery. Cutlery? Like forks and knives and spoons he has. Rory so you don't have a dishwasher?

R: I do. His name is Simon.

M: Right. And still, you clean your plates yourself?

R: I don't know. That was a joke. I get somebody else to clean them for me. No, I don't have a dishwasher. I don't see the point of it. If I have a sink and a cloth to clean them with, then what's the point of having a dishwasher?

M: At night the temperature drops. So the temperature drops and it gets cold. So Rory does need his boiler. Rory, what sounds does the boiler make?

R: I don't know how I would describe the sounds the boiler makes. It clicks when it's on. Like it clicks one time to tell you that it's on. Sometimes it will rumble if the pressure is low.

M: And you can say that I'm very grateful to my plumbers and engineers. So, plumbers, they fix...

R: They fix your toilet. They came to fix my toilet.

M: And you can say that I'm very grateful to my plumbers who fix your toilet and engineers. Engineers keep the boiler running. Okay? So they keep it running. Or like air conditioning or heating systems. So they keep them running. They keep them functioning. And then we can finish off with the second conditional. If I didn't have this thing, this object, this item, this technology, it would be blah, blah, blah. So pretty much death, dear listener, it's kind of like... Because the topic is like you can't live without. So I can't live without my bread maker. If I didn't have my bread maker, I would obviously die of starvation.

R: Of lack of bread.

M: A lack of bread. Well, yeah, we're joking. But again, like you literally can't live in a house, which is cold. So you cannot live in a house without a boiler. Because I live in Scotland. It's cold, the temperature drops. So there you go. So here it's like a serious situation. And if Rory didn't have this boiler, Rory would freeze to death in Scotland, freedom. And then Rory gave us an example. Like one time last winter. So winters in Scotland are pretty cold. The boiler stopped working. And I almost bankrupted myself. So I lost lots of money using electric heaters. To stop the house from freezing. You see? So, Rory didn't have this boiler. He spent lots of money on electric heaters. It was horrendous. It was horrible. Awful. And now I'm so glad that, this doesn't happen again and I have this boiler. Hey! So you see? Kind of like a life-saving situation, dear listener. You know, I have it not to freeze to death. So air conditioning, you know, a boiler. What do you call this like, central heating system?

R: Yeah.

M: If it's like it's centralized. If it's not kind of like privately owned. But if you have this central heating system in your house, in your block of flats, like from the state.

R: Oh, well, maybe this is... Maybe this is something that's a difference in cultures because that's what it is in your country. But in my country, central heating is something that's centrally controlled in your home. It's still privately owned.

M: Ah, yes, it's the same. Yes, sorry. Yeah. It's privately owned. And it's kind of the company that built your house, your block of flats like owns it and is responsible for fixing it. Yeah.

R: Yeah. But every, like, for example, where I live, every apartment in the building has its own system, which it's in control of. So this is a big difference between our cultures then. Because yours is controlled as the building as a whole. But if I want to turn up the heating in my home, I can do that. But it doesn't affect the other people.

M: Yeah, we have some flats who can also do it. Like they can turn it off and they can like to turn it on. Right? But it's kind of there for you. So, dear listener, I wonder like what you have. But this is a good topic to talk about because it connects... Like it is connected to your life. Right? So heat, your house should be warm.

R: You need to have a warm home.

M: Yeah, like a warm home. So like a boiler, air conditioning, like a heating system. Right? But again, dear listener, you can talk about your bed and your TV and, you know, flowers. You can't live without your flowers. Right? But it should be like an object and make sure it's easy for you to talk about. Don't pick some, you know, gadget that you can't describe. I don't know, something crazy.

R: I'm trying to think what I would... I can't live without the...

M: Remote control.

R: The walls, the walls in my home. What could I say about the walls?

M: And then kind of like two minutes you describe the walls, no, it's crazy. Maybe your bathtub. You know where you take a bath. But it's also, it's difficult to speak about a bathtub.

R: Yeah. I have a bathtub and a shower. I feel very fancy.

M: Oh, look at you. Me too. I have a bathtub and a shower.

R: Really?

M: Yeah, not a separate shower.

R: Oh, I have a separate one.

M: Oh, Rory, look at you. And you live in a castle?

R: Well, no. And I should point out, in case anybody thinks I'm living fancy. In my shower the glass is... It's a really strange thing. The people that lived here did something very weird. They had the class replaced. No, they had the frame replaced. And in replacing the frame, they didn't replace the glass. They just drilled new holes in the glass. But the holes that they drilled in the glass are very close to the original holes. So all of the glass is at an angle. This means that having a shower is a very interesting experience because you have to point the shower in a certain direction or you flood the bathroom. I'm getting it fixed. But I was just like, how did these people live like this for all the time they lived here? Very strange. Never buy an apartment from students.

M: Right, dear listener, thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode, speaking part three about gadgets and technology. Bye!

R: Bye!

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