Talking About Evenings

Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. The programme where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgie. Go to our website for a text version of this podcast and a worksheet to help you learn. bbclearningenglish.com.

So, Georgie, how's your week going?

My week's going well, thank you, Neil. How's yours?

Very good. Have you got any exciting evening plans?

Not really. I'm just going to go home and chill. What about you?

The same, yes. And so what do you do in the evenings?

Well, if I'm at home in the evenings, I usually, I might do some exercise. Then I have dinner, and then I'll do something relaxed, like, at the moment, I'm doing a lot of jigsaw puzzles. And then I usually go to bed. What about you?

Yeah. I go home and eat, I guess, quite early. About 6:30.

Really? 6:30 you eat dinner?

Yeah, because I have kids and they need to eat. They're hungry after school. So, yes. And then I will try and do something relaxing and nice. I might study.

What do you study?

Language.

OK.

And then I might play my guitar or watch something or waste time on my phone.

What do you, what's the most relaxing thing for you to wind down in the evenings?

I find playing my guitar very relaxing.

Why's that?

I think because I have to concentrate and it's a different part of your brain that you use than the normal working brain.

How about you?

I like watching TV to wind down, to feel relaxed. But like I said, recently, I've been getting into doing jigsaw puzzles because I think, similar to your guitar playing, it helps you to switch off your brain. You forget about the, the day you've just had at work and you can just relax.

Yeah, and when you watch TV, do you like to watch a whole series or do you just watch something and then something else and then something else?

It depends what time it is. I try to limit, my TV watching to one or two episodes maybe, and I like watching quite trashy TV. Something that I don't have to concentrate too hard. Because, you know, the work day is long, and I just want to switch off.

Yeah. Do you go to bed late, then?

No, I try to go to bed around nine pm.

Nine?

Yes, because then I read my book, which I didn't mention earlier, but when I go to bed, I read my book before sleeping and it's another way to switch off my brain.

Okay, if, if I read a book, I fall asleep.

Well, that's exactly why I do it. That's exactly why I do it. It helps me switch off.

Or if I watch a film with subtitles and have to read the subtitles, that makes me fall asleep.

So, Neil, I said I go to bed at nine. I usually go to sleep around 11. What about you?

I go to bed later than that. I go to bed probably about 11 and I read, but then I fall asleep very quickly.

So we go to sleep at similar times, really.

Yeah.

And would you say you are a night owl? That's someone who has a lot of energy at night.

Yes. I think if I didn't work or didn't have kids, I would stay up very late. I like staying up late. When I was a younger man, I stayed up very, very late.

Interesting. I'm the opposite. My brain is dead in the evenings, at night. I can't do anything late at night.

The evening is the best part of the day.

I prefer the morning.

What about the weekend? Is your evening routine different at the weekend?

I stay up later because I don't have to get up early to go to work. So that's the only difference, really. How about you?

Yes. Well, often at the weekend, at least for me, I'm more likely to have plans, social plans with friends in the evening. So I also go to bed later and spend more of the night awake, I suppose.

So you don't go to bed at nine at the weekends?

Not usually. It depends, but mostly not.

Let's recap. We've had wind down, gradually relax after doing something stressful.

We heard stay up late, which means you continue staying awake late at night.

We heard night owl, who's someone who likes to stay up late in the evening.

And we had switch off, stop thinking about stressful things from your day.

That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. If you want to learn more phrasal verbs like switch off, Georgie's made a whole series, and you can find it on our website. bbclearningenglish.com.

Next week we'll talk all about food and flavour. See you then.

Goodbye.

Bye.