Do This To Make Yourself Feel Good 💪 #352
25:55 Share

This is Rock and Roll English. Real people, real English. Here's your host, Martin Johnson. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Rock and Roll English. Episode number... I also, again, forgot to check that before I did this intro. I'm guessing it's around 352. I'm not sure. But in today's podcast, we speak to Substitute Sabrina the American. She is back today.

and we talk about how to do things that make you feel positive okay because we all want to feel positive but we need to know what things we can actually do to make ourselves feel positive okay i feel like there are other things i should tell you but i can't remember so let's just jump straight into the conversation so here is the conversation i will talk to at the end happy listening

Substitute Sabrina, how are you today? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. How about yourself? Always fantastic, Substitute Sabrina. Always fantastic. Long time no speak. I don't know if we've spoken since your friend Trump is back, have we? How...

Oh, you were going to touch this subject? No, we haven't spoken. And for the record, please, he's not my friend. I can't curse on here, can I? Yeah, you can. Why not? He's a fucking prick. So no, he's not my friend. Right. I did think there that was maybe a touchy subject and I was opening a can of worms. Yeah, we can talk about it. No, no, no, no. I don't want to go there. In fact...

Today's podcast, I wanted to do the opposite because I have been really stressed for my own, like, not important personal things going on, moving house and other things. And I was doing a Facebook Live recently in the Rock and Roll English family.

And I basically was just moaning about how stressed I was. And I got one comment from someone and it really changed the way I thought when he just said, just be happy. You've got a beautiful home, you know, be thankful. And I thought, you know what? You're right. Okay. So I need to be more positive. So we're going to talk about ways to be positive. Okay. So we can forget about that guy there. Okay. Well, just to close that guy, it's that guy and the whole thing.

entourage he has but yes let's close that subject right now positivity there we go closed um okay but before we do that how do we usually start the show well i think if i remember correctly we talk about your reviews okay do you think we have one probably okay so yes we do apologies immediately for the pronunciation of the name it's from marius barton

And it says, I absolutely love your accent, Martin. Notice that one, substitute Sabrina, accent. Okay. He hasn't heard mine probably. Okay. We were just talking about this actually, substitute Sabrina and I, about how the internet is always in American English. It's so annoying. I don't know why we don't have British English for American, for the internet, sorry. Well, maybe because that's just how it is. You know, the prominent accent wins. Exactly.

Anyway, so it says, I absolutely love your accent, Martin, your humor, your honesty, your voice, the sound quality, your ideas, your inspiring speeches, your craziness and your amazing stories. I've been here for two years and have listened to all the episodes. Thank you for sharing yourself with us. You've brought so much laughter and happiness into my life. R&R family has a great daddy. Greetings to all the guests, those who are still around and those that haven't been on R&R English in a long, long time.

Sorry, this isn't an iTunes review because it was a Facebook review, but still great. So thank you very much for that, Marius. Wonderful review. That is a beautiful review. Yeah, that is very nice. Indeed. So we've got the review. That was positive. So now we're moving on to positive things. So not...

just like this is a positive thing, things that you can actually do to feel positive, because I've noticed I am a miserable bastard. So I need to actually go out of my way and do things to feel more positive. OK, so number one on the list, thanks as always to chat GPT, is spending time in nature. So does this make you feel good? Substitute Sabrina?

All right. The reason I'm laughing is and it's going to sound. No, actually, no. I'm a city girl. And when I am in nature, I can appreciate it. But for maybe an hour and then I need to get back to the cement. I'm sorry. I know. Cement. Oh, yeah. If there's one way to feel positive, it's looking at cement, isn't it?

But unless we're at the seaside, that's a whole different story. But no, I don't like walking in the woods or in the fields or stuff like that. See, I thought you were going to be one of those people that just says, yeah, because everyone says that. You say, yeah, nature's wonderful. So I thought you were just going to go along with it. But you obviously didn't. Because, in fact, I do remember once we were in the nature at a beautiful park in Rome.

And had a bit of a picnic or sitting down and you spent the whole time complaining about the ants that were crawling on you. Yeah, I have a thing with insects. So nature, insects, they don't do well with me. Yeah, I must admit, I am quite similar to that. Like you said, it's great for an hour. Oh, it's so wonderful. And then you're kind of like...

Yeah, getting a bit bored of this nature bullshit now. And especially in England when often it's cold and wet and maybe you think the children want to go outside, let's take them outside and then they're really...

They've got like mud all over them. And you think, oh, for fuck's sake, why did I even bother? Well, at least that you have the kids. I have Mr. Substitute that he likes going for walks. Oh, the worst type of person to marry.

I know, right? And when we go for walks, let's say it's not really nature, but around my neighborhood, there are some areas that you feel like you're not in Rome. So there's a lot of green. Right. And yeah, I'm not really fond of those kind of walks. Right. I can just imagine how wonderful that is. Husband and wife walking hand in hand and the wife just saying, fucking hell, when are we going home? Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, it sounds lovely. Okay, this one. So let's keep it positive. Okay, something to make you feel positive. I don't think there's a thing that beats this on the list, which is getting tipsy. Okay, not drunk, tipsy. In my opinion, that's just the, it's like the best moment in life. You know, a couple of glasses of wine or a couple of beers, tipsy. How about you?

That I have to agree. And it actually happened to me recently, even though I'm not supposed to drink because of my diet. This past weekend, we went to an Irish pub here in Rome. I don't know if you remember it. The Fiddler's Elbow. Fiddler's Elbow. Yeah. Okay. Fiddler's Elbow. So a fiddle is someone that like plays with something. Also, what we use for... Not the instrument. Or am I pronouncing it wrong? The Fiddler. Yeah. Okay.

I believe that is an instrument, but it's also used for kind of pedophiles as well, that word. Okay. Because if you fiddle with children, that is not a good thing. No, no, no, no, we're not going there. No, no, no. Yeah, let's definitely not go down there.

No, no, it was a really awesome pub. But anyway, packed with everybody, Irish, English, Americans, actually very few Americans. Long story short. Better that way. That's probably why you had a good night because there weren't many Americans. No, I have to agree. I have to agree because you know my theory on that. But anyway, long story short, we were there and I'm like, okay, I don't drink beer much often, but I'm starting to drink cider. Okay.

Okay. So, you know, in the cider, they give you the tall bottles. So I had the first bottle. I'm like, oh, this is good.

So I'm watching the match. I'm like, okay, I'm bored. I'm going to get another drink. So with two bottles of apple cider, I got tipsy and it was a wonderful feeling. That is exactly the thing. There's nothing better than being tipsy. And I also recently got tipsy because, yeah, these days, because getting tipsy, you think, oh, I'll be okay. Because obviously you feel okay in the morning if you've just got tipsy. The problem is if I get tipsy, my best time to get tipsy is kind of like

six o'clock kind of thing. And then, but the problem is, well, there's just that, I think there's just that like perfect time of the day to get tipsy. I don't want to be getting tipsy at seven o'clock in the morning, do I? Obviously. It's just that perfect time. Cause it's not like before you've eaten kind of like aperitivo kind of thing. Okay. But the problem is then I have to put children to bed and then that, that's kind of when like the alcohol is wearing off and then you're coming back to reality thinking, oh my life shit again. Yeah.

The positivity is gone. Then you've got to put the children to bed and it's like, oh, for fuck's sake. But yeah, I recently got tipsy. A couple of glasses of wine. I thought, you know what? I'm going to treat myself because I never do this anymore. Right. And another thing I noticed, speaking of children, is that I think I actually...

love them more when I'm tipsy. Oh, really? It's a great way. If you, if your kids are annoying, you just get a bit tipsy and then you will love them again because you're like, oh, this is great. And then when the alcohol wears off, then reality hits, then your reality kicks in. And yeah, then you say, oh, for God's sake. But there we go. Okay. So what about this one? Buying new clothes? Does that make you feel positive? Um,

Actually, yes. Due to the fact, I'm sorry if I keep repeating it, but yes, I'm on this wonderful diet and I've lost 30 kilos. Oh, so you're buying new clothes for smaller sizes? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that's an awesome feeling because you're like, wow, I did this. So yeah, it makes me feel positive. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, see, I generally have the opposite problem in life at the moment because...

Yeah, again, I keep repeating myself as well, but the maybe children not really doing as much exercise, sort of stomach getting slightly bigger. And so I... That's all that beer. Yeah. Well, actually, I don't have time to drink that. So, yeah, that's... I do have the opposite thing. But the other thing is...

I just never buy clothes. I actually bought some new jeans recently because I was going to work and then I was just thinking, it's very breezy today, isn't it? And then I kind of thought this, something's not right here. And then realized there was this big rip in the back of my jeans and the wind was just going straight into my ass.

Well, besides the wind going up your ass, maybe not very appropriate for when you go to work. Yeah. Luckily, I was still kind of at home. I just left, so I quickly had to turn back and...

I put some old jeans on, which also had a rip in, but rip on the front, almost looking quite cool. But I thought, you know, I'm 40 now. I can't be wearing ripped jeans anymore. That's what like 17 year olds wear. Yeah, I think it's past your age. Yeah, exactly. So I had to buy some new jeans. And I honestly think it was the first item of clothing that I have bought in at least two years, at least.

Well, I mean, yeah, it makes sense. And yeah, but when I put those new jeans on, my God, what a feeling. I was like, God, this is so nice having jeans with no wind coming in. Exactly. First of all, it was an unbelievable feeling. However, the positivity thing didn't go great because when I was in the shop...

I went to the till to pay for them and well actually I went to ask if they had them in my size and then I just heard all this kind of commotion

And someone was getting arrested for shoplifting. Oh, my God. He's like police were like jumping. The security men were jumping on this man. And then I said, like, excuse me, have you got these in a 32 inch waist? I don't think they were interested in assisting you. Yeah, but I was like, I want this. I want these jeans. But yeah, but yeah, definitely. I felt great after the new jeans. So buy new clothes does work, apparently. Yeah.

Okay. So this one is a bit more kind of left field. Okay. But something which you see all the time people talk about to make you feel positive, which is like journaling or like writing of how grateful you are. I think it's called a grateful journey. Like you write in there every day. You mean like a blogger?

No, I'm a blogger because other people read your blog. So you've just got like a little book where you write, like, I'm grateful today for my health, for my husband, stuff like this. So like writing in a diary kind of thing. So journaling, I think, is a way of like a cooler thing to say. Because a diary is like... Oh, okay, sorry. I'm old school. Well, no, from my understanding, and I'm absolutely no expert, but a diary is like...

you know, like a 13 year old girl of today, I went to the shops and I bought some lipstick. That is a diary. Whilst a journal is you write your thoughts and things like this. A little bit more intellectual. Okay, I got you. Yes, exactly. Great word. So only intelligent people have them. So is it something you've ever tried or would try?

Actually, no. It's not my cup of tea to write my daily thoughts or my objectives. But Mr. Substitute does that. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah, he does that. Well, you should try it as well then. You can both do it together. Yeah.

No, I keep it in my brain. I mean, I have my thoughts there. I don't need to write it down. There's something about the process of writing. Mr. Substitute seems... I should have had him on this positively. I know, right? Next time you can ask him. He likes walks. He's got like this journal and then...

And then there's you. He's your old football buddy. Exactly. Well, I obviously am a very intelligent person as well. So I have one of these things. Okay. Obviously. And I don't really write much in it at all. So but when I'm on the train going to work, which is quite a depressing thing, I must admit, getting that train to London. Yeah.

Everyone's kind of depressed. And so to try and help with that, I thought, right, I will try this. So I basically get on the train and then I normally just write a couple of things like, I don't know, like my children and stuff. And then, but then I realized just writing isn't enough. You have to visualize it. Okay. So then you draw some pictures.

No, not drawing pictures, visualizing your mind. I was kind of visualizing it, like spending time with my children, like really in a positive place. And then because I have my bike on the train, my foldable bike, someone got on the train, walked past the bike. This is the moment where I'm like the height of like my positivity thing, walked past the bike, hit the bike.

And then basically started having a go at me saying, why'd you get on a train with a bike? My God, I'm getting into it. I'll talk to you because of your bike sitting there. Okay. But I was trying to do something positive. And then you get some idiot having a go at me because he walked into a bike.

And there goes the positivity out the door. Out the window in a second. So that's what you get for trying to be positive. Just be miserable. But anyway, let's try to keep it positive. So this next one, a well-organized wardrobe. Definitely. Yeah? Yeah. Is your wardrobe well-organized? Very well-organized. Yeah? Very tidy. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not a fanatic that I have like the same colors or something like that, but I do have the same type of clothing, let's say, shirts, pants, all organized. Yes. Oh, yeah. But does it make me feel positive? I mean, yeah. Why not? It's all tidy. Well, yeah, because certainly when you get old, you realize that the tidy does kind of make you feel better because when you're just looking at messes, a mess all the time.

It's not great. I actually, because we obviously just moved and literally about 20 minutes before we started doing this, I was trying to find some pants and then realized that my pants drawer wouldn't open because there were too many pants in there. So you're talking about your pants longer or you mean your underwear, right? Underwear. Underwear. Okay. Pants is the correct word. Underwear.

So my underwear draw then, and it was just like bursting out. And then I thought, you know what? I don't wear my Homer Simpson underwear.

I can't say underwear. I don't wear my Homer Simpson pants anymore. I thought, do I really need these? So I went on a bit of a cleaning mission, actually. In fact, I just threw it all on the bed because I didn't have time. I think Mrs. R&R might come home in a minute and say what the hell has happened here. But do you give them away like to charity or something or you throw them away? Well,

Well, they're actually all on our bed at the moment. I haven't done anything with them. So I'm going to take them. There's like a food bank, a clothes bank, like the place where you put them and they take them to charity. But at the same time, is anyone going to want to wear my Homer Simpson pants from like 2001? Okay, so let's be...

I mean, if they're in good condition and somebody who can't afford, yeah, they'll wear them. So you have to consider that. Come on. I don't know. I think that even that person might even say that I don't want them.

I don't think that would happen. But I will give them there and then, you know, people can decide for themselves. So there we go. OK, so what about this one? I'm looking at my list. I'm trying to think what should I go for? Cooking a healthy meal. OK, what about this one? Does it make you feel positive? The actual cooking part or even the eating part, I suppose.

The cooking part, I mean, I don't know if you remember, I love to cook. Usually I love to cook like tasty and good stuff, but I've been... Not what you have to eat now then. No, I mean, I still make it good and tasty, but obviously it's a lot healthier. And I mean, when the outcome is good, like, I don't know, last night, what did I make? I made some seitan, sorry, soup.

And usually, you know what Satan is? You know what, when you said that, I thought... Not the devil. Well, that's the first thing that came into my mind. I thought, how do you make a devil? Like, an evil devil. No, it's vegan food. Right. Because, well, there were two things going through my mind. You said that. I thought, I don't want to look stupid and say, I don't know what that is. But at the back of my mind, I was thinking, is she talking about Satan, the devil? No.

Anyway, long story short, I basically made this thing, seitan, taste good because it's like tofu and tempeh, all these vegan stuff because I've inserted that into my diet. So yeah, I was happy because it came out well. So I was positive. Right. Okay. Well, that's the other thing as well. At times when I have attempted cooking...

normally doesn't go well and you think I've just wasted all of this time on this now, which is an absolute nightmare. Do you still make a good carbonara? Because I remember you used to make a good carbonara. Very rarely I'm allowed to, I must admit. But I would say once every six months, okay. All right. But I could make that, I suppose, when I'm on my own, but I'm too lazy. I just want something quick.

Because I do notice when I talk to people that are really into food, they come out with all of these words like Satan and stuff. How has food changed so much now? I don't even know what half of this shit is. Well, you have to go into the vegan world and stuff like that. I'm not a vegan, by the way. It's just I've inserted that into my diet because it's healthy. Right.

So how do you insert vegan stuff? You just say you just eat? No, instead of eating red meat, for example, or processed things, you're eating this stuff which is all... How do you say it? It's soya-based. Right. So it's plant-based. It's all from a plant. Right. So it's healthier for you. Got you. Got you. But you have to spice it up or else it tastes like shit.

OK, so we are going to stop the episode there at that beautiful note where substitute Sabrina says you have to spice it up or it tastes like shit, which I found extremely funny. So, OK, on to the vocab, because, yes, the podcast will continue tomorrow in the Rock and Roll English family membership area.

So looking at some vocab today at the beginning when I mentioned Donald Trump, which I did as a kind of joke, but I quickly realized that substitute Sabrina was actually really not happy about it. And she said, for the record, he is not my friend. So for the record, basically a way to say, I just want to say that I want everyone to know this. For the record, he is not my friend. And I described it as a touchy subject. So touchy, something where you think, oh, yeah.

Wow, maybe I had best not talk about that. And I said I opened a can of worms. So when you open a can of worms, you start...

discussing something which could lead to some problems. Okay, so leave the can of worms closed. Don't open it. And so then I said, I need to go out of my way and do things to feel more positive. So when you go out of your way, it's when you have to do something extra. Okay, something more than what you would normally do. So if I just do my, live my normal life, I don't really feel positive. So I have to do something extra. I have to go out of my way.

And I then said to substitute Sabrina when I said to her, do you like nature? And she said basically no. I said, I thought you were just going to go along with it. So when you go along with something, you just say, yeah, OK, I'll just, you know, do what they do.

And we mentioned getting tipsy, which remember is the stage before drunk. We also had the word fiddle. OK, now I believe that is an instrument as well as substitute Sabrina said. But to fiddle, if you're playing with something like a child playing with a toy, you can say stop fiddling with that toy. As mentioned, also used for other things which are not so nice. I then mentioned how the alcohol when you're tipsy wears off. OK, so when it wears off,

It stops having effects. Let's say that is one of the pieces of vocabulary for my 14 day vocabulary for lazy people challenge. OK, just in case you haven't done it, it's free. Check it out. And I then said that day I decided to treat myself and have more wine. So when you treat yourself, you say, you know what? I'm doing this today. I don't care. OK, like a present to myself.

I mentioned how as well with my jeans, I felt it was very breezy. So breezy when you can feel the wind coming in into my jeans. And then I mentioned it was the first item of clothing that I bought in two years. So notice I say item of clothing because clothes hasn't really got a singular. You cannot say one clothes. So we say an item of clothing.

And I then said I heard all this commotion in the shop. So commotion, lots of noise, shouting and someone was getting arrested. I also said the next thing was a bit left field. So if something is left field, it's a bit more strange. Let's say when I spoke about journaling, it's a bit more left field. It's a bit different to getting tipsy, for example.

And then I mentioned how someone was having a go at me for my bike. So when you have a go at someone, it's when you say not nice things to them, like move your fucking bike. OK, that's someone having a go at me. And that's basically what the man said, even though my bike was very much moved. It was him being an idiot. So if that person is listening, you're the problem. OK, so that's it for today. I will see you all very soon. But in the meantime, just keep on rocking, baby.

Thanks so much for listening to Rock and Roll English. For more great content and to stay up to date, visit rockandrollenglish.com and facebook.com slash rockandrollenglish. We'll catch you next time.