In today’s episode I talk to you about the recent events in Britain with the Brexit, a bit about the state of Australian politics at the moment, as well as my news and what I have planned for The Aussie English Podcast in the near future.

Walking With Pete: Brexit, Aussie Politics & More

G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Walking With Pete.

It’s been a little while and I thought it was probably about time that I recorded another episode. So, I jumped outside today. It’s only about lunchtime, only just got out of bed. Sunday, [I] had a cheeky sleep in so that was good. [I’m] Feeling a lot fresher. So, [I’m] walking through the park at the moment across the road in North Melbourne, and yeah, [I] thought I would do an episode for you guys. So, what to talk about today? Um… Recent news I guess you’ve probably all heard about the Brexit that’s been happening or that’s just occurred in Britain. So, “Brexit” is how they’ve referred to Britain exiting the EU, and they’ve joined the words “Britain” and “exit” to write, or to make the word, “Brexit”. And, I’m kind of irritated because… So, the vote just won. I think it was 52% voted to leave where 48% voted to remain in the UK, and even though I’m from Australia I have um… British heritage I guess you would say, and my mother was born in Britain on a holiday. So, she has Britain citizenship and as a result I have a British passport, but yeah… So, I was always happy that I had a British passport because it allowed me to go to Europe, and I could go and live in any of the countries in the EU. Any of the, I think it was 27 before Britain left, 27 countries in the EU without a visa, without having to worry about any of that sort of stuff, but as a result of Britain leaving the EU that passport is effectively going to become useless. At least, in the next two years or so when their exit is finalised. So, I won’t be able to go to any of these countries, and Britain was kind of the… one of those countries in Europe that was last on my list. I was much more interested in going to a lot of the other European countries like France or Spain, more so than Britain itself. So, that’s one of the things that’s been happening recently in the news that’s kind of been a bit of a shame but we’ll see what’s happened. It’s interesting because by the sounds of it the majority who voted to leave Britain are [is*] actually the older generation. So, they’re all, I think based on what I’ve seen on the news, I haven’t looked into it too heavily, but it looked like from what they were saying the majority of leave voters, the people who voted to leave, were 65 years and older. So, all the retired generation. Those who don’t work anymore, and the majority of those who voted to stay were I think under 30. I think 75% of the people who voted to stay were young Britain citizens. So, it’s a bit of a shame that we have these two demographics that are sort of opposing one another. So, you have all the younger people effectively wanting to stay in the EU and all the older people wanting to leave the EU. And it’s also sort of screwed up what’s happening with Scotland being part of Britain as well. I don’t think a single area in Scotland, not a single region voted to ah… leave the EU. And so, that’s going to be interesting in the future too because Scotland may have now a referendum to try and leave the UK, the United Kingdom. And this could also set off a similar kind of thing happening with Northern Ireland where they may want to try and reunify with Ireland again so that both Ireland and Scotland can be somewhat independent countries, and also remain within the EU while England can go and do whatever the hell it wants. And, if that happens I’m really hoping that I can change my.. my um… English passport somehow. At the moment, I have no idea how this would work but I would love to be able to make it Scottish or Irish or something instead. My UK, British passport, it would be so much nicer if I could be of Scottish citizenship and be able to stay in the EU.

Anyway, so that’s one of the things that um… has been on the TV a lot here recently. Obviously, because Australia is an ex-colony of the UK, and just because it’s big news anyway. Aside from that Australia is about to have a federal election. So, I think it’s next week. I think July the 2^nd I have to go and vote in this election. So, there’s [are*] three main parties. We have The Labour Party, which is sort of more worried about workers and unions and workers rights. And then you have the Liberals who are the conservative party in Australia. And then, a lot smaller but still sort of becoming a… a larger player these days in… in the ah… political realm in Australia is the Greens and they’re sort of the environmentally conscious party in Australia that’s, you know, a lot more LGBT rights, and um… you know, sustainable living, worrying about um… the environment a lot more than say the Liberals or Labour. And, I don’t know. For me personally I’m sort of over it. I can’t… it’s so painful watching TV these days and seeing just the same two leaders, Bill Shorten who is the leader of The Labour Party, and Malcolm Turbull who is now the leader of the Liberal party, just repeating the same rhetoric, the same arguments, the same points over and over again about how awful the other side of politics is, and how awesome they are, and you know, how much in trouble the country is, and how they’re going to save the country. It’s just… I get so over hearing them speak these days that I’ve kind of been somewhat disenchanted with the political process, especially in Australia. And the more you look into Australian politics the more I think you will probably laugh your head off. You’ll… especially if you’re from places like different countries in Europe. I think America’s kind of got a bit of a screwed up political system. And England’s pretty weird as well at the moment with their… sort of um… opposing sides constantly at each other’s throats. But it seems Australia as well, similar to America and England, the opposite sides never agree on anything. They’re just contrarians I would say. They always take the opposing view of the other side of politics even if they agree deep down. Even if they agree with the point, they always take the opposing view because um… they want to win all the voters who disagree with say Labour, you know, LIberal will just disagree with whatever Labour says in order to get all the voters who hate Labour, and and… just as bad Labour will do exactly the same with the Liberals and take the exact opposite stance in order to get um… all of the anti-Liberal votes. And so, Australian politics is a bit of a joke at the moment, I think on… on the 2^nd of July I’m probably going to vote for an independent party. So that’s where you have just an independent person running to have a seat in… in um… in the government. And I think… I think in Australia a lot more people are starting to do that. They’re starting to vote for the smaller parties. They want the smaller parties to sort of gain in… in size and… and momentum and have a little bit more power over these larger two or three political parties that have just sort of really become quite detached from I think mainstream Australia to be honest. It just… it feels like they’re just after power and yeah it’s just it’s so irritating. I’m so over it. Anyway, that’s enough from me whinging today about Australian politics and about the Brexit.

Aside from watching the news and being a little disenchanted and disheartened by that I’ve been just trying to smash out the PhD recently. Trying to work on that and write up some papers and get that done. Um… hopefully I’m going to finish in December, but who knows, who knows. But the plan is to finish in December and then I guess I have about two years to travel on my British passport before it becomes useless. So, I’m debating doing that, and yeah… continuing the Aussie English podcast potentially overseas in Europe where I can keep doing what I’m doing, and I guess fill you guys in and tell you about all the kinds of things that I do and see while I’m traveling around. Although I haven’t really thought too much about it yet, but we’ll see. Um… I’ve gotten back to the gym recently. So, I took a bit of time off. I was a little depressed and having to deal with a lot of stress with um… university and doing my um… part time job as well as learning languages. I just sort of ran out of time and it all got a bit much so I sort of stressed out and stopped going to the gym and training, and it was kind of really funny because the less I trained the more I kind of got depressed because you end up at home, you know, sitting around, not being active, eating, um… not taking care of yourself, and it’s like this… what I would call a positive feedback loop where the more you do the nothing um… it leads to you feeling like crap, feeling depressed, feeling unhappy, which leads you to do even more um… nothing effectively. So, you sit around, so you feel bad, and you feel bad because you sit around. Anyway, so I dragged myself out of that recently and am feeling so much better. It’d been probably four or five months since I’d really trained properly at the gym, and trained um… I do jiu-jitsu, which is a form of martial art where you use submissions to defeat your opponent, and I got back into that and not only… you know I got to exercise again and feel… feel really good in that aspect of um… my fitness and daily life, but I also got to reconnect and hang out with a lot of my friends again that I hadn’t seen in quite a while. So, yeah it was kind of funny to see how as soon as I dragged myself to the gym, you know, the first day I went there. I didn’t really want to go. I knew I was going to be unfit, and that I wasn’t going to be able to necessarily fight very well in jiu-jitsu or um… do what I used to be able to do in terms of lifting weights, but despite that, you know, the first day was the hardest, dragged myself in and got back into it and felt amazing that night. So, it is so funny how it’s sort of all in your head sometimes, and you just… that first… that first day. That first time, when you force yourself to do something that you don’t’ feel like doing, quite often it can lead to you feeling so much better afterwards. So, I was really happy that I went through that and I’m trying to make it more regular, and I feel like physical activity definitely keeps me sane. It definitely gives me a clear head and helps me sleep. And I think the social side of it as well is just brilliant because I get to see a lot of people who I otherwise wouldn’t get to see. And, being on your own, being solitary, and loneliness kind of become addictive at times, whether or not you’re sort of predisposed or suffering from depression, it can become pretty addictive to just do what you want to do all the time on your own, but when you can sort of separate yourself from that and force yourself to be social and everything it, yeah… it leads to some… I don’t know, it’s interesting. And I’m happy I got back into it.

So, yeah, the episode’s probably gone long enough today. Um… I’m going to also try and do some more… I’m going to try and reformat Aussie English and… excuse me… and do… put together groups of episodes to…

You’re all good. (I’m very sorry). You’re all good. You’re all good. Getting attacked by a tiny little dog.

Ah… what was I talking about? I’m going to try and reformat Aussie English where I’ll get into a bit of a better rhythm and start releasing say, an expression episode, a pronunciation episode, and an embarrassing English Errors episode once a week. And I’m going to try and make them sort of tie into one another so that, for example, all the previous phrases I’ve explained, or pronunciation things that I’ve explained in previous episodes, I’m going to try and sort of write it out and have it on a list in front of me when I write these episodes, and I’ll try and use all the previous phrases that we have gone over as much as possible so that for you guys, you can just keep practicing these things again and again and again. So, I’m really hoping to sort of drive home um… Aussie English and reinforce your learning by doing that, and get a proper rhythm to it. At the moment it’s sort of just been any time I have a good idea or I am really driven to record a bunch of episodes I do it all at once and then I kind of just put them all up on the podcast, but that’s probably not the best thing for me to do long term. It’s a little harder to sort of continue at a steady rate. So, I might try this for a while and we’ll see how we go. But, yeah definitely get in contact with me on… on Facebook or on the website if you guys have any comments, any suggestions. If you’re liking what the podcast ah… is at the moment, let me know. If you don’t want it to change let me know. If you do want it to change and you like the new system or the new set up that I’m going to design um… let me know. Just, yeah… if you have time always give me some feedback. If there’s anything that uh… comes across your mind that you think could help improve Aussie English, and yeah… I might leave it at that for today guys. Thanks again for listening guys. I really appreciate it. I’m so happy to be able to help you with your English, with your Aussie English, and, I’ll chat to you soon. All the best!

Vocabulary list:

By the sound(s) of it/things

• Used for saying that you’re basing your ideas or opinions on what you’ve heard or read.

E.g. By the sounds of it your mother doesn’t want to come to the party.

To look into something

• To try to discover the facts about something such as a problem or a crime.

E.g. The policemen went to the house to look into the complaint they received.

Screwed up

• To make a serious mistake, or to spoil something, particularly a situation.

E.g. When he was caught drink driving he knew he’d screwed up.

Whatever the hell

• A slightly stronger way of saying “whatever”.

E.g. You can do whatever you want à You can do whatever the hell you want.

Ex-something

• Former something.

E.g. Ex-boyfriend (former boyfriend); ex-president (former president); ex-boss (former boss).

To laugh one’s head off

• To laugh uncontrollably.

E.g. John told a joke that was so funny I nearly laughed my head off.

To be at each other’s throats

• To quarrel or fight consistently.

E.g. He and his little brother are always at each other’s throats fighting over their toys.

Deep down

• At the bottom; basically.

E.g. Deep down he knew smoking cigarettes was bad.

Anti-something

• Against; not to like something.

E.g. He is anti-smoking à He is against smoking.

To be a joke

• Someone or something not worth taking seriously.

E.g. Your old car is a joke. It looks like it’s about to fall apart.

To be after something

• To be in pursuit of in order to reach or get.

E.g. The police were after the suspects who committed the crime.

To whinge

• To whine; to complain.

E.g. Mate, stop whinging and harden up!

To fill someone in (on something)

• To inform someone about.

E.g. Can you fill me in on the story?

To drag oneself to

• To force yourself to go somewhere.

E.g. I’ll drag myself to the gym later, but I really can’t be stuffed going.

A clear head

• To be able to think clearly.

E.g. He always makes important decisions with a clear head.

To tie into one another

• To connect to one another.

E.g. All the Harry Potter books really tie into one another well.

To drive home

• To make clearly understand.

E.g. He really wanted to drive home the point he was making.

To come across one’s mind

• To think of; to realise.

E.g. Suddenly, it came across his mind that he was meant to be in a meeting.

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