Why Modern Life is Rubbish 😅 #345
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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 345, baby. Oh yeah. In today's episode, we speak to Boom Boom Cannon. Yes, he is back and I must say, I believe this is a...

Very good episode. I am my biggest critic. So if I say it's a good episode, I mean it. So you have that to look forward to. And we talk about

and why modern life is rubbish because Boom Boom and I both recently turned 40 so we are now officially old so we thought we would just moan about modern life things like ads on YouTube which you cannot avoid so I think I'm going to stop talking so here is the episode I will talk to you at the end happy listening Boom Boom Canon how are you today

I'm very well, Martin. How are you? Always fantastic, Boom Boom. Always fantastic. Since we last spoke, we've both turned 40, haven't we? Yeah. How's that been? I actually think, yes. I think for the first time in my life, I feel like an official grown-up. Okay. How about you? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think fatherhood did that for me. Yeah, maybe. I think it's a combination of things for me. Fatherhood, 40 and the fact that possibly soon I'm going to be buying a house and having a mortgage.

um all very adult things not a lot of fun there really is there classic adult behavior i'd say yeah so i think i i know what it feels like to be a grown-up not that i think i'm a very good one not a very good example to follow but definitely i also when i was on holiday recently um

I was in like the kids swimming pool with my kids. I just want to say, you know, you know, and I got told off for going down one of the kids slides. So that also made me feel like an adult of like, you're not allowed on. How, what, what kind of slide are we talking?

It's just very, very small or pretty small. Um, but I, I want to also add here, I wasn't just going down there on my own for fun. I was, there were two slides next to each other. My daughter was too scared to go down one. So I sat on the other one and then the man said, no, it was a bit ridiculous. He said, you're allowed on if the child's sitting on you, but not, not by yourself. Not just demonstrating. Yeah. I,

I was tempted to tell him to fuck off, but it wasn't the vibe. It wasn't the vibe in the kids' swimming pool.

So I just said, yeah, sure, no problem. So there we go. That is a grown up for you. So how do we start the show, Boom Boom? It's got to be with a review. Do you think we have a review? Surely. I kind of think maybe. So, well, I have got one to read, but whether I've read this before is another question because I went on, it was from two years ago, but it sounds...

I have got a good memory and I don't remember reading this. So therefore, in my opinion, it's a new one. So, um,

it is uh five stars itunes the best ones and it's from sarah dn and it says enjoyable and informative the title and it just says learn english and enjoy your time okay that's it that's that is all you need people all you need to do to leave a review okay to make to make me happy but of

podcast has maybe gone downhill since then. Yeah, so Sarah DN, are you still enjoying your time? Please let us know. Let us know, yeah. So on to today's pod and a combination of things made me think of this topic of again the fact that we're old and all

And also I was talking to someone recently, one member of the Rock and Roll English family actually about how annoying it is that you have to book places now because it kind of like kills the whole spontaneous vibe. And then I kind of thought, you know what? Modern life is just a bit shit, isn't it? So I've got a few things. Sounds like a good thing for two 40 year olds to moan about. Talk about how great things were in the past.

So I've got a few things on the list, OK, that we can have a chat about. See if you think it's annoying and what you think. OK, so the first one, again, something I've noticed recently.

Certainly in the UK, you go to a pub, you go to pay, generally pay on your phone. And the first thing before you do, it says, do you want to add? I don't even know the correct pronunciation. Gratuity. Is that right? Gratuity, I think is how that's said. Yeah. It's a very posh way of saying, do you want to leave a tip? Yeah. And then you feel really bad pressing no. What are your thoughts? Do you ever press yes?

If you've gone to the bar, for instance, to get a drink. No, I'm pressing no all day long. Exactly. Like, why would I give you a tip? I've gone to the bar.

you've just poured the drink and you're asking me not directly but indirectly with your stupid machine do you want to give me some extra money again i just want to say fuck off but uh and then there's that slightly awkward moment where if you click no there's still the sort of the transactions maybe the drink's still being poured the transaction's still finishing and there's that sort of like elephant in the room which is that you just refuse to give this person a tip

I just, yeah, I'm not a fan of that. No, exactly. At least if you want to do it, at least do it after payment. Like you've made the payment. Like, you know, was that a wonderful experience? Do you want to add some extra money? But before it's even started. I don't know yet. I can't make a judgment on your performance yet. It's too early. You imagine, I'm just thinking out loud here, but you know, you meet a girl and it's kind of like, do you want to, you know,

be in a relationship so look we don't know each other yet let's let's get to know each other let's just sleep with each other and as i was talking there i was thinking how is this going to end am i going to say do you want to pay for sex here's my card machine

Okay, so that's the first one. I also think with those card machines and tips, they can be a bit tricky, particularly in different countries. Also in like the order of like, is it, are you putting in the total, like including a tip or are you, is it a separate amount you add for the tip? What sort of the order? Like do you accidentally put your pin number in and that was actually a tip and you just give them like...

Five and a half grand. Five, three, eight, two, one is your pin number. That's how much. Yeah. Well, yeah. And if it's in another language, it's got, I assume that means just click no, just click no. No, it's everything. No, I think it's international as well. I can't think of a language where. Red. I think red, the red button's quite international. Yeah.

Red or no is what you're looking for in those situations. Okay. So the next one, again, I got this from my new best friend, which is chat GPT. And it says the curse of notifications, your phone buzzing constantly with updates you don't care about. What are your thoughts on this? Do you restrict the notifications? Do you get a lot of notifications? Yeah.

I don't really restrict that much. And I think I often feel like I should because they are distracting. Like I'm sitting here working and then it's just some random notification. It is distracting. But do you get like Facebook notifications on your phone? Facebook? I don't think I do, but I tell you Instagram, just various apps. Yeah. Instagram. Yeah. But that only really, I think notifies me. I've been like tagged in a,

Oh, no, that does actually give some random ones, like some random person's doing a live thing or something. Right. Yeah, no, it's all sorts. I was going to say, you're not really that into social media, so I doubt you're getting lots of...

Well, as we kind of always see every year on your birthday from the amount of birthday messages you receive, which I like to point out to you. Which you didn't this year, thankfully. That was my present to you, wasn't it? That I didn't tell you how unpopular you are. Yeah, because I imagine my rival, my birthday rival probably for his 40th birthday.

would have just been inundated with messages so i think we have discussed this on a family podcast but to give people context there's someone else who went to school with that shares a birthday with boom boom and every year i like to show boom boom how the other person gets more birthday messages than him this year i didn't but if you are interested boom boom i did double check and you did lose unfortunately good so you so you actually that gift that you said you're going to give me you now have essentially taken back

Correct. What's also annoying is that when you then in the past, you've done the rock and roll English birthday post for me. And obviously, you know,

really great then there's often lots of responses to that you know say for people saying happy birthday but you you have decided that they don't count towards my total number do not count only ones on the facebook wall those are the rules of this competition competition that i invented which you've never really been a fan of have you haven't it's no funny that i can't believe you went back and checked

Really would have thought you'd had better things to do with your time. You would think that, really, wouldn't you? Because essentially I've got two jobs, two kids. But no, I haven't got anything better to do with my time.

That's still the best thing. Still the best. Still the best. But yeah, on the topic of notifications, I luckily have got all social media ones turned off, but I do get lots of random apps, which I get lots of strange notifications, which are quite annoying, which is why...

In fact, I'm actually playing with it now. I don't know why. I and I think this is on my list as well about like smart gadgets, like smart watches, like are they really necessary? So I have got an iWatch. I don't know what it's called. Is that what it's called?

I think so. I don't know. I don't have one, but like the Apple. Apple watch thing, which I used years ago, then stopped using it. Then I was in need of a watch, basically, because I went out with some friends from university, got really drunk, and then somehow came home without a watch. Yeah.

So I was in need of a watch. So I resurrected my Apple watch thing. But the notifications, I can't deal with it. And then I switched it off and then it's like, well, this is just an ordinary watch now. So that essentially gives you the same kind of notifications you'd get on a phone. Yeah. And then your wrist is like vibrating and it will say like BBC News, like,

like interest rates have been cut by 0.25%. You don't need your wrist buzzing to be told that.

Not about interest rates, no. So, yeah, the notifications and on the smart gadget. So it says here, which I thought was quite entertaining, do we really need a Wi-Fi enabled toaster? I didn't even know they existed. Are you nodding there? Have you got a Wi-Fi? No, I don't have that. But I did recently my...

I have an app now for my electricity provider here, so you can keep a track of the electricity price. Also a very 40-year-old thing to do, so I can decide when to turn the dishwasher on, basically. And then it said, like, connect your smart gadgets to the app. And I remember thinking, I don't... I have nothing to connect to it. So, yeah. But you could, I guess, if you had a smart... What did you say? Toaster or kettle or something, you could somehow...

connect that to the app yeah see i'm not very smart i suppose on those things i don't really have many of those of those gadgets either but but yeah again i just think is that really necessary i mean what difference is is are you getting between i mean if anyone has got a wi-fi toaster let us know it could be great

Let us know. No, the most I have, I have a watch. I guess it counts as a smart watch. I don't know. It's not an iWatch, but it tells me like, you know, if I'm working out what I've done, calories and heart rate and all that sort of thing. So yeah, that's pretty smart. That is sometimes good. But then that was kind of taken over my life at one point. I remember when I was living in Italy and I,

I had, I just got in from work, took like, I was going to say took all my clothes off, but I didn't do that. Everything but socks. Yeah.

I think I got changed into some more comfortable clothes and took my watch off. And then I had to go and buy some bread to just basically walk downstairs. And I remember thinking, well, I better put my watch on to go downstairs. I've returned home before when we've left the flat to say, I mean, we haven't gone that far, but maybe we've left. I've got, if we're going for a walk, I've got to go back and put my watch on. I,

I've got to see how many steps I do. There's no way I'm doing this walk if it doesn't count towards my step total. So I now like to live free without any of these pressures of how many steps I'm doing.

and just go free but you actually did touch upon another one which i think is on the list here somewhere about apps you need an app for everything now it's like do like one that comes to mind is when you go to a football match and it's like download the app and you get your tickets there and you're like oh my god like what happened just a paper ticket um

Yeah. App for everything. Some restaurants now you can order via the app and get in there, right? That, that again is a kind of one I've got here. Well, if it's not an app, it's a QR code. What are your thoughts on that? You go to a restaurant and it's like, they say, oh, you can scan this and look at the menu on your phone and then you can order there. What are your thoughts? No, not, not really a fan of that for me. That's just not the sort of the feeling of a restaurant. I want the classic menu, right?

The waiter. 100% the same. Again, is this an age thing? I don't know. But as well, often like the Wi-Fi doesn't work very well in the restaurant. Just go there and just pay. And downloading an app as well. And then I'll register. Give us all your details. Yeah, no. Absolutely. Just go up with the menu and then buy whatever you want. And that, I suppose, is another one. So you're in a supermarket.

You've only got a few items. What are you doing? There's no queue for the real person or there's the what are they called? The self-checkout. What are you going for?

These days, I think I know where you're going with this, but I'm actually quite self-checkout. Self-checkout guy. Yeah. And I tell you why is because you don't like talking to people. Yeah. I live obviously here. And as much as I've progressed with the language, there can still be some some mix ups. Actually, I've got I've got I've got a mix up to tell you about. So I prefer the self-checkout because then it's just me and a screen and I'm not going to embarrass myself.

And if I am, it's to a screen. For instance, we were in the supermarket a couple of days ago and I had tried to use, had like a gift card basically that you could use in the supermarket. So I tried to pay with that. And then there was a rule that you needed to, we'd gone like over the amount of the gift card so you couldn't use it, blah, blah, blah. So I just said to then the guy, I was in there with Mrs. Boom Boom and Baby Boom Boom. They were at the other end of the checkout packing and

and baby boom boom was uh packing her sheet got her working hard and and i said uh i said to the guy in swedish oh don't worry um i'll come back next time um we need to buy plenty of nappies is what i meant to say but basically the the word for nappies is very close to the same word in swedish to the word for essentially um

sanitary towels so i'd essentially shout out in front of everyone in the supermarket so i was calling to the other to the packing end of the checkout no we're coming back for um for them right and uh yeah that's just shall we we're coming back for some sanitary towels as well yeah because it was like 30 quids worth of on the gift card so it's sort of suggesting i was about i was just going to come back and spend 30 quid on sanitary towels which

um it was not too yeah i can imagine that yeah that situation embarrassing for you but for mrs boom boom i would imagine was oh yeah but yeah yeah it's primarily for her and she was just you know they're packing minding their own business and next thing you know i was trying to look after a baby was the uh was the gift card a birthday present

No, no, it's just for work actually. Oh right, I was going to say. Because I thought, when do you ever have gift cards? It's a very birthday thing, isn't it? It's the classic Christmas gift at work. Because I was thinking, you know, what a dream to spend a birthday present on if you were buying some nappies. Yeah, I mean even for a Christmas work gift, nappies is, you know...

not the most exciting but practical because exactly you have to buy a lot of nappies these days again at our age you get someone buys you some nappies you're thinking brilliant thanks a lot um

So, OK, on to something else on my list. I have here unskippable ads. So you're on YouTube and then you're being forced to watch these ads. I mean, do you ever stick with the ad? Is there ever a time where you think this is interesting?

Very rarely, very rarely. Skip as soon as that, as soon as that skip button's coming up. Well, because there are some, aren't they, that are only five seconds. I don't know how it works, but some are like longer, aren't they? Some you pretty much have to watch, right? And some you can sort of skip. Yeah. And then when it's got the countdown of until you can skip, you're just looking at that. Five, four, three, two, one. Skip ad. Yeah. Yeah.

well that's very annoying so if you think when obviously people used to watch normal tv so like when we were teenagers let's say and a tv show would have ads you just had to stick it out really yeah but now even like those five seconds of ads you're kind of like oh my god like this is this is an absolute nightmare yeah we've kind of through uh

sort of streaming services sort of moved away from the idea of having to watch ads on TV like we did when we were young. Well, even with streaming services now, they have, don't they? That's true. You can pay significantly less, I think. I'd say like 50% less if you do it with ads. But I think most people just can't face that and are happy to pay. Well, essentially, I think 100% more. I think like Netflix is about £5 with ads and about £10 with ads.

without I think so it's literally 100% more just to not sit through like 30 seconds of an advert yeah

Yeah, yeah, it's, no, adverts are very, very annoying. On podcasts as well, how did, like, what do you do on, with pods? Well, I have actually had a few offers, Boom Boom, to have some adverts and turned them down, Boom Boom. Have you? Well, I say that, I mean, if someone was offering me, you know, like a million pounds, I think I would take it. If any advertisers are listening. Yeah.

A million pound an episode. We can... That's where negotiations start for me. Okay? But yeah, you think like if it's not a lot of money, I don't want to dilute the podcast with some... Yeah. Were they...

offers to sort of pause and then an advert plays or for you to advertise something? Because that's... Yes, I have to do it. And then you have to do what you can have pre-podcast, mid-podcast, and the mid is where you can get the most money because people are already invested in the podcast. So they're unlikely to go forward. And to be honest, I do this. I'm watching...

like a youtube video and then the person starts advertising something and it is actually really annoying if you try to skip it because then you get lost and you're like what second was i on oh my god fucking nightmare so if you just suddenly randomly start saying something like i really love this new um come and buy your sanitary towels only 30 pounds the best sanitary towels i've ever used then we know that someone's paying you a million a million pounds

Because as mentioned, that's where negotiations start. That's the going rate. Yeah, exactly.

OK, so this episode is going to continue in the Rock and Roll English Family membership area where, remember, there are more than 1,000 extra episodes and there is the best online English learning community in the world, in my opinion, obviously, where we have weekly online lessons and lots of other wonderful stuff. Go and check it out if you want. If not, stay around for the vocabulary used from this episode. So, in the...

Boom Boom and I were talking about when you go to pay for drinks at the bar, for example, and it says, do you want to add gratuity, which is one of the words on the list, actually, one of the R&R pieces of vocab. Gratuity, meaning basically a tip, just a really posh way to say it.

So they probably try to confuse you to make you pay. So if you are in England and they ask you to add gratuity, say no. And so Boom Boom said, yeah, it creates a kind of awkward, embarrassing situation, which is the elephant in the room. So the elephant in the room is an expression which means an obvious problem or difficult situation, which everyone knows about. People just don't want to discuss it. It's the elephant in the room.

Another term I used, very simple, but something to use. I said I was thinking out loud when I made an example. So when you think out loud, it's when you speak as something enters your mind without thinking about what you're saying, which isn't always obviously a good idea. Boom Boom said as well that maybe the podcast has gone downhill. So if something goes downhill, it becomes worse over time.

Then I mentioned how when you can do an advert in the middle of a podcast, you can get paid more money because people are invested in the podcast. So I'm sure you know the term invest. But when you are invested in something, it's when you are committed to it, like you are invested in the podcast. But I said I turned down these offers of sponsorship. So when you turn something down, you reject it.

because I didn't want to dilute the podcast. So if you dilute it, it makes it weaker or less pure, less magical, which obviously Rock and Roll English is. And we were talking about adverts and we said when we were teenagers and we were watching something on TV, we just had to stick it out. We had to stick out the adverts. So we had to endure this difficult, unpleasant situation of adverts.

Then we also spoke about Boom Boom's birthday rival, who has the birthday the same day as Boom Boom. And every year we play this game, who's going to get more birthday messages? And we said Boom Boom's rival is inundated with messages. So if you are inundated with something, it means you have so many of them, you don't know what to do with them. So he gets so many messages, he doesn't know what to do with them.

it. That term is actually from my No Study Vocabulary course as well, which is a course that will help you learn advanced English vocabulary and slang through stories that are hopefully entertaining and then the vocabulary is constantly renewed and you can remember without having to study. If you want to check it out, check out my free two-week vocabulary challenge for lazy people designed for

lazy and busy people that have no time or no desire to study. I will put the link right in this podcast so you can check it out right now. So that's it for today. 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.