📙 Part 2: Describe an activity you enjoyed in your free time when you were young

This episode's vocabulary

To bump into someone (phrasal verb) - to meet someone you know when you have not planned to meet them.

To wander (verb) - to walk around slowly in a relaxed way or without any clear purpose or direction.

Perpetually (adverb) - always or very often.

To hang out (phrasal verb) - to spend a lot of time in a place or with someone.

Run-in (noun) - if you have a run-in with someone, you have a serious argument with them or you get into trouble with them.

Hindsight (noun) - the ability to understand an event or situation only after it has happened.

Invariably (adverb) - always.

Run afoul of something (idiom) - to do something you are not allowed to do, esp. breaking a rule or law.

To loiter (verb) - to move slowly around or stand in a public place without an obvious reason.

To gallivant (verb) - to visit or go to a lot of different places, enjoying yourself and not worrying about other things you should be doing.

Supervision (noun) - the act of watching a person or activity and making certain that everything is done correctly, safely, etc.

Woodland (noun) - land on which many trees grow, or an area of this.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, off you go.

R: Let's get started. But remember, I do not recommend anybody does this. This is going to be a really difficult question to answer actually, since, all I did when I was young was drink, smoke, read and make wildly inappropriate remarks. The only other thing I really liked doing was going out for very long walks when I could, mostly because it was a great excuse to see my friends. And, well, actually, it's quite funny, since it's how I met my best friend when I was in high school. I was out one day and bumped into her. And the pair of us formed this little jewel for a while meeting up after school and wandering around the neighbourhood, checking out what was going on in different parts of it. And of course, perpetually surrounded by a cloud of cigarette smoke. We actually started to pick up a following of people who had hung out with us from our different schools in the area. And, eventually, you could have 10 or more teenagers just randomly wandering the streets, smoking and laughing and just being kids. I don't think we caused that much trouble, but there were definitely a few run-ins with other kids that weren't so much fun in hindsight. Oh, and invariably, we run afoul of the law sometimes, since the police were allowed to break up large groups of teens loitering together. I'm not sure that's legal now. But human rights weren't such a big thing 20 years ago when I was a teenager, so that probably explains why that happened. It was a good way to make friends. As I didn't have many back then. And ironically, get some exercise though, I wouldn't really recommend the type of cheap smokes, cheaper alcohol, and gallivanting around places without any real supervision. At least we enjoyed ourselves, though, going to the beach and wandering along the woodland paths and back streets and sometimes into the countryside. I mean, we would walk for miles to, well, just to get to each other's houses and have something to do. And we've made friendships that lasted a lifetime. It's hard not to look back with a sense of nostalgia, although, I imagine we're probably much healthier now. If I hadn't done that, I feel like I'd have been fatter, but I might have gotten more homework done. I still feel I did pretty well though, in the end.

M: Have you recommended this activity to other people?

R: Not really, no. It's not the healthiest choice you could encourage people to make, is it?

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Discussion

M: Hey, what a Rory story! Whoa! So a great beginning. All I did when I was younger was drink, smoke, read or make wildly inappropriate remarks. Wow. Such a nice, lovely, lovely Rory. Scottish Rory. Yeah. But I think like most Scottish teenagers, they drink, smoke.

R: I don't think that's true. I think, most Scottish teenagers are actually extremely responsible. I just had a childhood that wasn't conducive to that.

M: Really?

R: Well, the ones I meet now are quite laid-back people. But, you know, not everybody had my childhood growing up. So, you know, it adds variety, it's what I will say.

M: And then Rory continued, the only other thing I really liked doing was la-la-la. Right? So, one thing I really liked doing when I was a child or when I was a teenager was doing something. So was going out for long walks. So Rory took long walks when he could. Mostly because it was a great excuse to see my friends and smoke.

R: Yeah, I used to smoke a lot.

M: What did you smoke, Rory? Tell us!

R: I smoked Marlboro reds, but then I moved to Russia and I changed to the cheapest brand a Russian cigarette that I could possibly find. Which was Troika. Oh my God... 72 rubles a pack, which is about seven pence.

M: This is really bad...

R: It's absolutely awful! They were so so bad. It was glorious times, though. I remember they changed the front of the package for Christmas to Santa Claus and they never changed it back. They just left it like that, that's how cheap they were.

M: It's quite funny. So, Rory still finds it funny.

R: It's a little bit funnyyy.

M: And this is how he met his best friend. So, when he was doing this activity, when he was walking, smoking. Walking, smoking. He met his best friend. And then Rory told us this story, how he met his best friend. So using past tenses, right? Because the story is in the past. I was out one day, I bumped into her, into my friend. Well, future friend, yeah? I bumped into this person. So kind of like, just like, oh, wow, hello. Like unexpectedly, yeah?

R: Yeah, just out of the blue. Oh, there's an idiom.

M: And then Rory was wandering around the neighbourhood with this person, with his friend. So wander around, when you just like walk about, you wander around without any purpose. And Rory was always surrounded by a cloud of cigarette smoke, because as he walked, he smoked. He did walking and smoking. Walking smoking Rory.

R: That's all we did. It sounds really sad, but like, actually, it was quite good fun, to be honest. We just used to talk a lot and it was quite good when we came out of it. Apart from the obvious lung damage that had been done.

M: And then these two, two of them. So, Rory and his friend started to pick up a following of people, who would hang out.

R: Yeah, that was weird.

M: They were doing this walking and smoking and some people like, ah, these guys are cool! Let's kind of join them. Like remember, run, Forrest, run. In this film. He started running and then like, a bunch of people saw. He runs. He knows what he's doing and they kind of joined him.

R: I would love to say that it was that, but what I think it was, was just teenagers that had nothing better to do found other people with nothing better to do to hang out with. And we all had nothing better to do together.

M: So people started hanging out with Rory and his best friend, also walking and smoking. And there were about 10 teenagers who randomly wandered the streets. Wow. Kind of like a pack of you, a gang. Scottish gang.

R: Yes, basically. Oh, God. It's all so embarrassing now.

M: What does it mean a few run-ins with other kids?

R: If you have a run-in, so it just means that you meet in quite an aggressive or a charged situation. So, we would meet up and there'd be like an exchange of words. Maybe a couple of punches would get thrown. I make this sound like I had a really hardcore childhood. It was the most middle-class thing you could possibly imagine. It wasn't very dangerous, to be honest. It was just teenagers being silly with each other.

M: And then you said in hindsight.

R: Yeah. So it's like looking back.

M: Yeah. These run-ins weren't, were not, weren't so much fun in hindsight. So looking back, it wasn't such fun.

R: Yeah. At the time, we were like, yeah, we sure showed them and then like, now I'm looking back, It's like, that's not really a great way to live your life.

M: What did you mention above the law? We ran... Of the law.

R: Oh, what was the word? Oh, run afoul. Yes, if you run afoul of something or someone, it just means that you've annoyed them or caught their attention in a negative way. Usually, it's you run afoul of the law, because then the police are interested in you.

M: Yeah. So could you imagine our Rory with his friends and 10 more teenagers just, you know like, wandering the streets in Scotland, doing some, you know, crazy stuff. And sometimes, yeah, he broke the rules, he broke the law, he ran afoul of the law. And the police, Scottish police.

R: The threatening Scottish police. They're the most useless police force in the world. But never mind, they're very good at, you know, breaking up groups of teenagers, honestly.

M: Oh, so they kind of like they saw you or like a group of 12 freaking teenagers, just wandering the streets and they told you like okay, like, go home, everybody.

R: They used to be allowed to disperse crowds of teenagers who were loitering. That used to be not a criminal offence, but it was just something that the police had powers to do. And now they don't have those powers. Because, to be honest, it's quite unreasonable. Now that I think about it. You know, kids, get up to mischief. But most of the time, it's just kids being silly. It's not that... It's not that big of a threat to society.

M: And what do you mean by loiter together? So, a large group of teens, of teenagers, loiter together.

R: It's just you hang around with nothing to do.

M: Hmm, yeah, just like get together. So huge group of kids get together, they loiter together. And then it was a good way to make friends. So, this is the way Rory made friends and get some exercise because it was like walking and smoking.

R: We would walk for miles. And obviously, because we were smoking and not eating, we were all in... Actually, reasonably good physical condition, to be honest with you, but it's not a good lifestyle choice. Like, you could give yourself cancer from that amount of smoking.

M: And then Rory's diet at that time was cheap smokes. So cheap cigarettes. Cheap alcohol. So as he was walking, he was also consuming some, you know, alcoholic beverages. And gallivanting...

R: Gallivanting around. That just means like, going all over places with no clear direction.

M: And kind of wander around, gallivanting around. So, that was Rory's diet. For how long? What, 10 years?

R: No, I think we started doing that when we were 16 years old and it stopped around about the time we were eighteen. So, it was two years. It was a fun two years. Very dramatic, lots of drama, lots of things happening.

M: But that's like cute that you started this trend. Like, you kind of, you started walking and smoking and then one person joined in and then 10 more people joined you. So you kind of like, you set the trend.

R: Well, I would love to say that it was down to me alone, but like, my best friend has a terrific personality. And is like really magnetic and quite engaging and very interesting to talk to, and has some cool ideas about the world. So, it's not me, it's a joint effort, really. I won't tell you her name because she looks back on those times and thinks that we were both idiots and she's right. We were, complete idiots. But what were you supposed to do?

M: Do you still keep in touch with her?

R: Oh, yeah, we see each other whenever I'm home.

M: Sweet. So we enjoyed ourselves, yeah? We enjoyed ourselves a lot, wandering along paths, back streets. We would walk for miles. So, here, you see, Rory did use past simple, but also, for like a regular action in the past, Rory uses would. So, we say like, we would walk for miles. Would - meaning the past. So, it was a regular action, in the past, like every week, we did that. We would walk for miles, we would smoke a lot, we would drink cheap alcohol. So, that's like proficient construction to use, if you did something on a regular basis, okay, dear listener? In the past. We made friendships that lasted a lifetime.

R: Well, I'd imagine they're lasting a lifetime. We're not dead yet. It's only been 15 years.

M: So, if something lasts a lifetime, yeah, it's just like, for life. And then like it's hard not to look back. So to look back, like you come back to those moments and you remember them with a sense of nostalgia. Right? Or you talk about your childhood. So, you look back on your childhood with a sense of nostalgia. This, you know, feeling, a little bit sad, but also happy.

R: Though, we're probably healthier now. We definitely are healthier now, for sure.

M: And then we wrap it up with our favourite, the third conditional. Hey! If I hadn't done that.

R: Yes.

M: If I hadn't walked and smoked... Walking and smoking, that should be kind of like, you know, like, an activity. Swimming, dancing, walking and smoking. So, if I hadn't done that, I'd have been fatter.

R: I feel like I'd have been fatter. I probably would have been fatter.

M: Now we're talking about the past and we are talking about unreal past. We imagine things that if I hadn't done that, but I did do it, I would have been fatter. Fat, yeah? But Rory wasn't that fat, at that point. Maybe he was before. Yeah, actually, Rory was fat. He showed me a picture of himself. Wow, he was huge. A unit.

R: No, I was not a unit, I was, I was a blob.

M: So if I hadn't done that, I'd have been fatter or I'd have been miserable, or if I had done that, I wouldn't have had any friends. So just, yeah, the third conditional. Dear listener, if it's crazy for you, if the structure is really difficult and you make mistakes with the verbs, do not use it. Okay? Yeah, it's okay not to use it. That's fine. I might have gotten more homework. Again, we are imagining a situation and that's why we're using the present perfect here. So, I might have done more reading, but I didn't. I might have done more homework, but I didn't, because I was busy walking and smoking. Hey! Rory, what helped you organize your answer?

R: Well, the only big departures from what's written on the task or how I started it and how I finished it. So I've just started off with by wandering around saying, this is going to be really difficult to answer and then explaining why it's going to be difficult to answer before actually launching into what I wanted to say. And the reason for that was just to buy time, because I couldn't think of anything. And then I rounded off with my usual, but still not on the task, if I hadn't done that and then all of the conditional structures that come with it. Everything else is sequenced together. Moving from how it started and then where we were and who I was with and why I enjoyed it so much. And then I added something about why it was a good way to make friends, because I've covered all of those points and couldn't think of anything else to say. I have a feeling that lots of other people did things in their childhood that were much more, they were much more interesting or healthier, or at the very least.

M: Thank you, Rory! Hopefully, you are not walking and smoking anymore. Dear listener, please, if you feel like you need to smoke now, no, you don't. Alright? Because it was just something that Rory did. I think like most teenagers do the smoking thing.

R: They did. They don't now. They're quite healthy now.

M: Anyway, thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode about free time activities! Bye!

R: Bye!

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