Would You Do This? 🤔 #350
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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 350, baby. Oh yeah. I didn't know today was a kind of special episode. 350, is that special? Should...

We celebrate that? I'm not sure. Well, we're not really. It's just business as usual. However, an absolutely brilliant podcast, in my opinion, with the one and only Boom Boom Cannon, where we talk about challenges, OK? Challenges that you would do or would you do? You know, like that old meatloaf song, I would do anything for love.

But I won't do that. Kind of like that. So would you do this? Basically, not for love. Just would you do this challenge? Yeah, it's just a stupid conversation like usual. Anyway, I'm really going to stop talking now. I will talk to you at the end. Enjoy the conversation. Happy listening.

Boom Boom Cannon, how are you today? I'm very well Martin, how are you? Always fantastic Boom Boom, always fantastic. First time we've spoken in a while since our rendezvous in London in December, was that? Yes, it was, yeah.

Yeah, two beers we had. Was it two? Big night. I think it was two. Well, because I was just about to say how I then had to like cycle home and come back and help with bedtime and I was quite drunk. So I thought we had at least 10 beers. Yeah.

i think it was two but you know they could have been i think it was for the strong beers i think it was four it must have been four two two rounds each i think two rounds yeah that's a big night i i'm saying four i'm saying four that's why i was so drunk or the fact i just don't drink anymore and two beers is enough to get me drunk now either one you choose which one you want to believe um so boom how do we usually start the show it's got to be with a review yes do you think we have one

Of course. Unfortunately not. We have had some brilliant ones though recently and I haven't seen any more. So please remember if you do

leave a review please send it to me because i actually cannot see them there's no other way for me to see them so please send them to me so um on to today's pod now i got down sat down at my desk boom boom i think seven minutes before we were supposed to meet and thought i've got nothing to talk about so i used my friend chat gpt again and

various different commands, I got to the point of setting challenges for yourself. Okay, so I've got a list of challenges, like personal challenges, and we have to just talk about them and see, do you think you could actually do this? Okay. Okay. So did you ask ChatGPT just for a suggestion for the podcast? And this is what it gave you?

Kind of. Yeah, I can't remember how the conversation went. We were lost in conversation. ChatGBT is honestly my best friend now.

And it actually responds to me now because we know each other. We've got such a great relationship. Yeah, it sort of remembers what you've asked previously. Yeah, and it's always rubbish. So it kind of responds to me in this humorous... ChatGPT is hilarious. So much funnier than you, Boom Boom. See, I'm mainly asking it when I use it questions related to my researcher. I feel like it takes me a bit more seriously where it just sees you as this sort of comedy character. Well, maybe it's because it's...

kind of like a reflection of you as a character. So ChatGBT reflects me and it's like a really hilarious kind of guy and then reflects you and it's just some boring person talking about sustainability.

i do talk to a lot about sustainability exactly so there we go um right okay so yeah away from the serious stuff like sustainability and so the challenges so this first challenge okay take a cold shower every morning for a week okay do you think you could do this have you ever done this have you ever done like a prop just a proper cold shower i've never

uh I don't think not by choice right I think I'm thinking back to our Benicassim showers you know I hadn't thought about this but that popped into my mind a music festival we went to in Spain everyone we were camping weren't we and they had showers and they were freezing cold weren't they yeah but it was Spain so it was warm we'd had an incredibly sweaty night sleep in a tent

But still, you're making out now that it was like we all wanted it. I remember kind of like we would do one by one screaming like girls going, oh, it's so cold. None of us enjoyed that. No, we didn't. So, yeah, that challenge sounds like a tough one. But I think if push came to shove, I could just about cope. Yeah. I don't think you're man enough, Boon Boon. Yeah.

I don't think you are a man enough. I have tried this. I did go through a phase of kind of doing this, but it was called a contrast shower. So you'd have really cold, then really hot. But I needed that really hot bit to recover from the cold bit. That's the thing. Because otherwise it was too much. Well, we're quite fans of that kind of process here in Sweden because that's the basis on which you use a sauna. Right. And then...

The one here, you can just get straight into the sea, which is generally very, very cold. Or there is this kind of like with a bucket of cold water over your head type thing. It's like the ice bucket challenge. Yeah, basically. Yeah, it's this bucket and you just pull a lever and it's cold water. Yeah.

So then with the hot cold, that can be pretty nice. Yeah, I agree. On that ice bucket challenge, I'd forgotten about that. And I actually remember getting nominated for that. Yeah.

And the whole thing was just too wacky for me. I didn't want to be doing this. So I actually just, the person nominated me and then I just kind of pretended I hadn't seen that post where he nominated me. And then I remember him writing directly on my wall saying, like, why won't you do this for charity? And I was like, why do you hate charity? Yeah.

Why are you such a horrible person? Oh, God. Absolutely. I remember nominating you during the COVID period where one of the

things that went around was running 5k and donating you probably weren't best pleased when i nominated you for that either way i wasn't but at least it wasn't it's the wackiness which i don't like i didn't have to like make a complete fool of myself and say oh look i'm throwing this bucket of water on my head um but yeah i was i wasn't massively pleased about that so one of the things though on this list was run a marathon okay a challenge um but so on

on the marathon one, that is something I would definitely would not be able to do because I really struggled with that 5k. I remember.

I yeah that that was really tough running for me my body's just not I'm not a runner what about you boo boo do you think you could run a marathon or have you I've I've run a marathon yeah you have bloody yeah last year god Copenhagen marathon Copenhagen um it was not a lot of fun I would say right so I wouldn't recommend it necessarily the training's horrible did you do it for charity or just for you no no just for me hey charity fuck fuck charity

Just for me, purely selfish. Yes. It was hard. In fact, one of the reasons I actually...

came up with this idea i was going to mention this on the family podcast but i don't think this person's going to listen to this it's because last night i was scrolling through facebook saw someone that i used to work with and she put on that she's running a marathon and she put on all these like pictures of like waking up and running in the dark and i was i was impressed by this and so

I gave her the thumbs up, but then I hadn't finished the post. And then when I got to the end of the post, it said, I'm doing this for charity. Can you sponsor me? And I thought, well, I've given her the thumbs up now. So she knows I've read it. So yeah,

I've got a sponsor. Again, it was kind of like a fuck charity thing, but I was like, oh, for fuck's sake. You went too early, too early with a thumbs up. I am very stingy with a thumbs up. It takes a lot to get a thumbs up from me.

But I thought, you know what? She deserves this. Like waking up, running all these things, preparing for this marathon. I'll give her the thumbs up. But then it was, please sponsor me. So then it cost me £10. You went for a tenner. I went for a tenner. I think that's a safe bet. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah. So that's...

That's fair. But then when you do this, the charity always fucks you over and says, I never really understand. If you pay an extra £1, then we don't pay tax or something like that. Again, so they've kind of got you over a barrel. Yeah. It's like...

10 becomes 11. 11.70. Okay. I thought, okay, it's something that, yeah, I remember this tax. You have to be a UK taxpayer, don't you? Something like that, yeah. Yeah, I've had a couple of, since I moved, where then I can't click that anymore. Well, I don't really properly read it because there's lots of boring small print. But the message I get is, give us an extra £1.70 or you're a bastard. Oh,

It doesn't say that on the website, obviously. That's what they're implying. Yeah. But that's the message that I get from that. Well, you've learned a lesson there. Don't go early with the thumbs up. Yeah, never give anyone a thumbs up. I would say you're quite stingy with a thumbs up as well, Boom Boom. Am I right? Yeah.

In general on social media. Yeah, I'm not sort of particularly reacting to social media. I do quite like a thumbs up, as we've discussed before, in WhatsApp. But I've reduced that since you told me that came across as passive aggressive. Yeah, I've mentioned a few times. It's just kind of like, shut up now. It's got to the point of...

In my opinion, if you just give just a thumbs up, something that I might like is something like, okay, see you tomorrow, thumbs up. Okay, there's more to that. But if you just give me a thumbs up, it's like he can't be bothered. Just sort of shut up. I mean nothing to him.

Well, now because you can even respond not with the thumbs up emoji, just like thumbs up the message, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's even more. Or the reaction to the message. That's even more, you think. I think so. Let's stop talking. Yeah, I think so. But on the flip side to that, whenever it pops up on social media,

um russell cannon likes your post i think that that's a real thumbs up that one it's it means so much more yeah he's not he's not chucking them around willy-nilly absolutely not so yeah when i get one of those i'm like oh that must have been a great post although i have noticed that you might only give a thumbs up if you're mentioned because it'll be something like all right yeah yeah boom boom yeah i couldn't

i can't deny that it does influence whether i give it one or not but i feel like there's also certain types of posts it depends like ones where people involve say sort of children you know you feel like you're obliged to you're obliged yeah yeah oh social media hey uh yeah so changing the subject quite a lot um this one

it's not i suppose that much of a challenge kind of depending on who you are donate blood have you ever done this yeah i've done that a couple of times yeah yeah yeah two or three times if i have a blood test i had a blood test recently because i honestly thought i was dying basically i'd woken up with a headache and i honestly thought i was dying i was like this is it this is the end

And so I went to the doctor and was like, look, I think I'm dying. Wow, with a headache. Did he say, what are your symptoms? And you said, there's a headache. And I was like, it's probably a headache then.

And then I think just to try and keep me happy, he sent me for blood tests. Honestly, I had that and I thought, I'm definitely going to die now. So the idea of... From the blood test. From the blood test. Well, I actually feel dizzy. I remember the first blood test I ever had and I was walking out of the hospital. Yeah. And then...

thought i was going to faint had to sit down at the side of the road and that hasn't changed so the idea of donating blood again i would like to do that to make me feel like a good person but it would just it's not even it's not possible and so yeah talk me through when you gave blood how did you feel yeah i felt okay i've done it well i think i mean i feel like i should have done it more really what i should have done because i i don't sort of have much

issue with it so there's no and once you do it they also send you quite a lot of messages saying we need more blood or after your blood type please come back um but yeah no i felt okay i mean it's not obviously a lot of fun when they're first putting the needle in and i i try not to look at it too much i sort of i actually close my eyes because yeah same yeah yeah

And then you see this, the pouch. You can see the pouch of blood. No, that's the part where I'd be a goner then. Yeah. Yeah. And it is. But it's okay. Actually, going back to the charity thing, I remember the last time I went. Because the way they do it here is you get a gift for doing it. A good gift? Well, I mean, they're...

Maybe it's like a water bottle or a tote bag or, yeah, these kind of things. But still, you know, I'm giving them something. It's good to get something back. And so the nurse sort of walked me past the gifts first before I was giving blood. And she said, oh, and these are the selection. And they vary from each time. So you don't know, what's it going to be today? Like a kinder egg. Yeah, kinder egg. But there can be some good stuff. And she...

She sort of took me through them and then said, or you can donate your gift to charity. Oh God. So obviously I just immediately crumbled and said, yeah, give it to charity. It's bloody charity. They're taking everything, aren't they? What can you do there? You can't really say, no, I would actually really like that plastic water bottle. So I deserve that more than charity does.

But yeah, I didn't get my gift and then went and gave the blood. Oh, it was okay. You didn't even get a plastic water bottle. No. You do get here quite a good selection of food and drink afterwards though because they make sure you sit down for a while. And then I remember when I did it in England, it was like a carton of Ribena and a packet of crisps. A meal deal from Boots. Basically, yeah. Pretty like crisps from a multi-pack.

and a Ribena but here there was there was a whole sort of almost buffet oh right okay that was that was pretty nice yeah yeah it's I think when people talk about English food I think

I think it's just the culture as well, isn't it? Of like, for example, something like that, you would expect some more food than that. And even like crisps and stuff. Like, I think it's so much bigger than just the actual food that people eat at home. It's just a cultural thing of just thinking about, oh, fuck it, just give him a bag of crisps. That's all right, isn't it? That's a meal. Like just that idea of just give him some crisps.

I mean, the whole meal deal concept, I think, is very British. I totally agree with that. And the thing is, but people think like that. That's like, oh, brilliant. I'm getting a meal deal. So for people that don't know, a meal deal is... So what is it? A sandwich, which I am not a fan of those sandwiches at all. A bag of crisps and a drink. Is that right? I'd say that's the classic. Depending on where you go, you can get some more variety. Like Boots are offering quite a good...

sort of variety on that but your classic is sandwich crisps and a drink but yeah that just sums it up doesn't it that's that tells you everything you need to know but there we go but on that thing of choosing gifts so just before Christmas actually I went to a toddler R&R her nursery Christmas party and they did a raffle

And then, so I think basically all the kids end up winning something, but, um,

So they called her name out and then I went with her to choose a gift. And they had some toys, but they also had some envelopes of like a £50 voucher. I see where this is going. Get that envelope. That's really good. Obviously, for a three year old, an envelope doesn't look very exciting, but a blue shitty toy.

that probably cost about three quid she's like no i want that toy fucking get the envelope it's 50 quid in there i'm loads of toys with that come on no they start crying okay take that fucking stupid toy then and you're coming back fuming i feel like they know what they're doing there

yeah putting that in the envelope like technically it's there but none of the children want it exactly oh god it's this is so annoying um but there we go okay so this podcast but actually seems really all about charity i might have to change the name of this which wasn't the intention at all but anyway so the next one is volunteer for a local charity have you ever done this okay um

I can see you're thinking now I haven't but I want to try and say yes because I want to give this impression I'm such a great guy I've already given blood uh I've run a marathon so yeah I'm always there pretty hard here I feel like I must have done at some point it's the sort of thing I do isn't it come on it is but we can't base it on that boom boom okay actions speak louder than words

You can't say it's the type of thing I would do. So yeah, that's a yes. Okay. I'm going to have to say, I'm going to have to say no to that for the time being, but maybe send you a message later when I've thought. Okay.

Okay, so we are going to stop the conversation there and it's going to continue tomorrow in the R&R family membership area where it will be episode number 800 tomorrow in the family membership area. Plus, obviously, there are hundreds of other podcasts as well in the family membership area. There are more than 1,000 in total, including the other types of podcasts that

Anyway, I'm not going to go into detail. So, yes, Boom Boom, by the way, does think of a time he has volunteered. So family members, you have that to look forward to. So on to today's vocabulary. I mentioned that I hadn't seen Boom Boom since our rendezvous in London. Now that, I imagine, is a French word. And I'm sure us English people absolutely agree.

Discussed French people with the way we say that with our English pronunciation. But in England, that is a thing. That is how we say it. A rendezvous, which is a kind of really fancy word to say a meeting. And then Boom Boom was talking about the cold showers and saying that, you know, when we were in Benicassim in Spain...

It was really hot. So I said, you're making out as if we enjoyed the showers. So you're making it seem as if we enjoyed them when we definitely didn't. And then Boom Boom said, if push came to shove, I could just about cope with a cold shower. So that's a lovely term. If push came to shove, basically meaning if I really had to.

He said, I could just about cope. I could just about manage, even though I think that's not true. I said, I'm stingy with a thumbs up. So I don't often give people thumbs up.

on social media because I am stingy, not generous with thumbs up. And Boom Boom mentioned when he nominated me to run five kilometers, I wasn't best pleased. A lovely term to say, not happy. He said, you were not best pleased. And I said, then when you sponsor people in the UK, and then it says, just add this extra bit of money so we don't need to pay tax. I

I said they've got you over a barrel. If someone has you over a barrel, basically you have no choice and you have to say yes. Okay, that's fine.

Boom Boom then said how I told him the thumbs up is passive aggressive. This is a really common term in the UK now. So passive aggressive means it's aggressive when you don't really mean to be aggressive. Now, thumbs up is not actually aggressive. It's just in my opinion, if you just give someone a thumbs up, if I say, I don't know, did you enjoy today's podcast? And you just respond with a thumbs up.

I'm a bit disappointed. I think they could have given me more, even just the yes. So that's my opinion. But the term passive aggressive is a really common thing. And Boom Boom said, yeah, he's not throwing thumbs up.

thumbs ups, I suppose, around willy-nilly. Absolutely brilliant term to say. You just give these things out without thinking about it. Some people say, for example, in the UK now, they make people like a sir. They just give out these titles willy-nilly without you really needing to do anything to actually...

deserve the title whether that's true or not I don't know but it's a very informal term but also a very funny term then boom boom mentioned how when he gave blood they said you can have this gift or you can give it to charity so he said I immediately crumbled so when you crumble you just say uh okay I

Whatever, whatever you said, that is to crumble. To not be strong and say, no, but I want this. It's just to say, okay, I'll just give it to charity. That is to crumble. And that is it for today's vocabulary. So I will see family members tomorrow for the continuation of the podcast and I will see everyone else in a week or maybe two. So thanks a lot for listening. I will talk to you 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.