The Changing British High Street

Speaker 1 0:00

You are listening to the English Like A Native Podcast. This is not your typical English language learning resource. No, there are no textbooks, there are no grammar rules. Instead, you just have the weird and wonderful version of English that you'll hear spoken in the UK. So tune in for your daily dose of very ordinary chatter with a very ordinary English girl. I'm your host, anna, and today we have a very special guest, the host of podcast Rock and Roll English, which is very funny. You should check it out. Yesterday we have Martin with us and we are going to be discussing our thoughts on the changing British high street. Now I must also mention, before I bring Martin in, that I was a guest on his podcast and we had a very interesting chat about the differences between the North and the South of England. So make sure you tune into that. I'll put the links in the description of this particular podcast episode. So without further ado, let me introduce Martin. So hi Martin, how are you?

Speaker 2 1:15

Hello Anna, very well, thanks. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 1:18

Thank you so much for joining me. So, martin, you have your own podcast, rock and Roll English. Firstly, the name Rock and Roll English. Are you a Rock and Roll kind of guy? Are you a musician of sorts?

Speaker 2 1:32

I obviously get this question a lot and I do kind of feel a bit stupid now for choosing that name. If I really think about it, the name was just oh, that sounds cool, I'll just use that. In time I've then since added I'm not even sure if this story is true, but it's a kind of Rock and Roll spirit, like be who you want, say what you want. But yeah, am I a musician? No, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 1:58

So what brought you into podcasting? Because you've been at it for quite a while now.

Speaker 2 2:01

Yeah, I have. It still seems to me because, as I mentioned to you in our pre-podcast chat, I still have no idea what I'm doing. So it still seems to me like I'm a newbie and but obviously in this online world we live in, things move quite quick. So I've been doing it now for six and a half years a little bit longer and yeah, I was a big podcast fan, like I still am, and I kind of just thought, you know, I fancy having a go at this and I also obviously I was teaching English anyway and I never really had lots of or much good listening material to give to my students, and I actually recorded the first probably 10 episodes that I didn't like publish anywhere. I literally just sent them manually via email to students and they all said, oh no, this is brilliant. So then I thought, right, let's do this. And it took me about two years to pluck up the courage to actually publish it online Because I was so worried what everyone obviously would say. And yeah, that's how it started, that's how I'm here, yeah.

Speaker 1 3:14

Fantastic, and once you started you didn't look back.

Speaker 2 3:17

Exactly. Yeah, I often tell people this if you do things online, you will be surprised how quickly people start paying attention. And you know, I remember the first time I broke the hundred download barrier and I was over the moon. I actually just couldn't believe it. And I remember even looking at the countries and there were countries very far away and I was just thinking, oh my God, I cannot believe this. And then, yeah, once you've got even just a small number like that of people paying attention, it's surprising how much motivation you can find to keep going.

Speaker 1 3:53

Yeah, it's funny, isn't it, how we can be so nervous about doing something like podcasts. I mean, it's probably one of the safest forms of putting out content online, because people don't really talk back to you, you don't see the likes and the dislikes and you don't have the negative comments. I occasionally get an email through, but it's nowhere near the level of interaction I see on other social platforms, which is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing in the sense that I'm a little bit oblivious to what's going on. I just put out the content and hope for the best, and you know, it's great not to have the negativity that can very quickly change the whole experience for me. But then it's a curse because you can't interact and know what's working well and what's not working so well. It's quite difficult to read the data. You don't get much data really, do you?

Speaker 2 4:45

Exactly, but yeah, that's obviously why I chose podcasting, because I was scared to put my face out there. In fact, even on my website, I had a cartoon picture of me, which I still use, because I was too scared to show my actual face. So, yeah, it is actually a good place to start if you want to get started in the online world.

Speaker 1 5:04

For those reasons as well, yeah, and so rock and roll English. Can people just find you on any streaming service?

Speaker 2 5:11

Any of the big podcast apps? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's on all of them. I'm not sure, but Spotify, apple Podcasts, podcast addict, I don't know. The list goes on and on.

Speaker 1 5:22

Yeah, and I'm sure there'll be more popping up over the coming years as well. And your podcast is what's hilarious and it's quite different, I'd say, to some of the other listening resources that are out there, because you're just kind of like anything goes really on you. It's very relaxed, very real, very rock and roll.

Speaker 2 5:40

Exactly, yeah, yeah, and that was another part of the reasoning of just having a chat with some friends. So the people I generally talk to are really close friends, like some of which we've been friends since we were four. Wow, we went to school together, so we are really close friends. They obviously know nothing about teaching English. They've got normal jobs, let's say, and we just have a bit of a chat and then afterwards like analyze what we've spoken about. Because, yeah, I was and still am learning Italian. So and I was listening to Italian podcasts and, like you, listen to one about, like, sicilian poetry in the like the 15th century, which is interesting, but sometimes you're just like I would rather just listen to a couple of people having a chat. So that's kind of what I thought. I actually got as well inspiration from a podcast called my Dad Wrote a Porno. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of that podcast.

Speaker 1 6:46

I haven't.

Speaker 2 6:47

So it's obviously an English podcast for English people, but anyone can listen to it. It's hilarious where this guy's dad wrote a very exotic book and they just go through the book and just read it and just have a laugh and it was brilliant. I used to love listening to that and again. So I just thought I'd like to make something like this of just entertaining people, just talking about random things and having a bit of a laugh, so that's, that's what we do.

Speaker 1 7:14

OK, so today we're going to talk about the high street. I tend to have a kind of British theme in some of my podcasts, kind of talking about British culture, and you know, I like to also be a little bit nostalgic and look back at how things have changed over the years. Every time I'm driving down the high street these days I'm always looking and going oh my goodness, it's changed so much. I used to love going to the high street when I was a kid and just hanging out and spending my pocket money, spending time there with my friends, and these days it's a very different environment. All the shops have changed and the variety what's on offer has changed.

Speaker 2 7:58

So I was living in Italy until last year and so I lived in Italy for like 12 years. So I noticed this thing a lot, because every time I come back and I'd be like what? Like JJB's closed, which was a sports shop, and so, yeah, I noticed this change in the local high street and even now, when I still go in, I'm still sometimes shocked when I go into town, as we say.

Speaker 1 8:29

So, yeah, I noticed this change. Yeah, absolutely. But first of all, we call it the high street. Now, this only occurred to me a couple of days ago, when I knew we were going to record this podcast. Like, I'm sure, it's the same in every country Every anything you drive down tends to have its own name. So we have roads, streets, avenues.

Speaker 2 8:50

Drives, drives.

Speaker 1 8:51

Yeah, so you might have Anna Drive. I don't think you'd have Anna Drive, but what everybody would King Drive. But the high street is not always called high street and I realized, oh, but we refer to every thoroughfare in the kind of centre of an area as the high street, so a thoroughfare being like a route, a path that people go through and it's usually they've got a lot of footfall. If there's a thoroughfare, it means there's a lot of people coming through that particular route, so it's like the main street within a town where there are shops on either side of the street. So it's normally around where there'd be a train station or a bus station. I mean, there's somewhere where lots of people are and we refer to that in every single town as a high street, even if it's not called high street. Like you know, it might be called Charles Road, but it's the high street. Of course, have you ever thought about that, isn't that weird.

Online Shopping Impact on High Streets

Speaker 2 9:53

Yeah, no, I hadn't actually thought about it at all, but I would say, certainly, where I live it would be. And when I was a child it was more common to say I'm going into town than to say that I'm going to the high street. Or if you said like, for example, I would only really say high street if someone said where is that shop? And I would say, oh, it's on the high street, because in town there is the high street which is the main strip which is the main strip. Yeah, that's one way of putting it, but then you've obviously got a few streets going off that where there are still shops. The high street where I live is, like, pedestrianized as well, so there are no cars. When I was a child it wasn't, but now it is.

Speaker 1 10:33

Yeah, how do they stop cars going down there? Have they literally like paved the entire thing?

Speaker 2 10:37

so there's no road, or they put bollards in. No, no road.

Speaker 1 10:41

So I did look up the whole high street naming thing and what I found was the high street of any British town or city is normally the central retail thoroughfare and, as we've said, it's not necessarily called the high street but in many cases it is called high street and it says in the English midlands high streets are generally called main street. However, in some towns like Norwich no street is called high street and whether this thoroughfare is called high street or not, the high street is the common term that we use to discuss that main thoroughfare where all the shops are. Now you can very quickly tell what an area is like based on the high street. So I think the high street is a clear reflection of a healthy town, so an unhealthy high street.

Speaker 2 11:27

I haven't thought about that either, actually, but it is true, 100% true.

Speaker 1 11:31

Yeah, absolutely so. If an area is quite deprived, then you're going to have a high street that's looking, you know, quite unhealthy. And do you have any? Can you kind of explain what an unhealthy high street would look like?

Speaker 2 11:45

I would probably have a look at some of the shops on the high street.

Speaker 1 11:50

Empty units would be a really clear indication of an unhealthy or deprived area. We saw that a lot after Covid.

Speaker 2 11:58

I don't know if you noticed that I was just about to say that in fact, in my local high street, one of the big, most established shops, probably the biggest shop on the high street Debenhams, which any person from the UK will know, shut and that is still shut.

Speaker 1 12:16

Yeah, I think Debenhams, along with many other well established chains, have actually decided to cut down the number of stores that they have. They've brought a lot back because I guess the biggest problem is well rising rents. The cost of everything is going up, so actually putting these stores in place is just too expensive, and I think online shopping has had a big impact on the high street. All you do now is just oh, I need some batteries for my microphone, just go on to Amazon. They'll be brought to my door and so, going down to the shops, go to the high street. This doesn't happen.

Speaker 2 12:55

That's exactly what I do. I'm too lazy to go out and go to the shop and buy some batteries, so I'll just buy them on Amazon, which I know isn't great, but obviously I'm the same as you children running a business like no time at all. So if I can save some time, I will.

Speaker 1 13:16

Yeah, and I think it's also like there's many things that you used to go to the high street for. So a high street it used to have a lot of things like a post office, the high street bank, because banking online wasn't always a thing, of course, and so you'd have your high street bank, your post office. Then you'd have things like your butcher, your baker, your candlestick maker.

Speaker 2 13:41

So I lived in Italy for 12 years, where both of those things are really common, and so, especially a baker, like buying fresh bread we literally had one underneath our apartment in Italy and you could literally smell the bread in the morning. It was fantastic, and there's literally nowhere now. There's no like local baker in the whole town. The closest thing sometimes is somewhere like Greg's, which.

Speaker 1 14:06

I was going to say Greg's. I think Greg's is better known for it's like pasties, isn't it Exactly?

Speaker 2 14:12

yeah, again, just coming back like having lived in Italy. I was in Sicily as well, which is obviously very different from the north of Italy where all of these local family run businesses are still very much a thing. When I come back and when I did come back permanently, you just notice now everything is just chain, like a chain like Greg's, and even like restaurants there's like Bello I D'Aliot and like all of these. You don't get really local, like family run restaurants. I mean, they still do exist, but they're really not very common these days and they're certainly not on the high street.

Speaker 1 14:49

I think you know what we mentioned about like rising rents has pushed out the independence to other areas of town, but then they struggle because there's not the footfall. When you mentioned about bakers, we, during the pandemic, obviously we had lockdown. We have an industrial estate close to our house and within that industrial estate there's a commercial baker who bakes breads and things for restaurants, but obviously all the restaurants had closed down so they had all these ingredients and so they just would open their shutters at certain times every day and they'd say you can queue up outside, obviously socially distanced, and we'll sell you whatever you need. We've got all freshly baked bread, we've got pastries, everything, and even though we were in a time of socially distancing, I that felt really nice, that kind of sense. I can imagine we were going out in our community to gather bread, we were going somewhere else to get eggs, and you would see all the people from the local area buying their daily bread, not daily bread. You don't eat that much bread in a day for their weekly bread. To be fair, with two young boys I do eat a lot of bread and that was quite nice. And so after the lockdowns, kind of you know, eased off and everything started to go back to normal.

Changing Habits in Hairdressers and Vape Shops

Speaker 2 16:02

They actually continued to provide a local community service because everyone was like we like this yeah, that was exactly how it was in Italy, like the local baker and yeah, I didn't really think about it. Has that also community feel to it as well, of actually seeing people instead of, like you said, buying things on amazon that come to your door and then? You don't go outside, so you don't actually see anyone.

Speaker 1 16:24

I feel like on our high street and the streets coming off the high street now just seem to be endless numbers of hairdressers and nail salons. How many hairdressers can survive in one small area, really, do you?

Speaker 2 16:39

go to the hairdressers. You have lots of lovely locks not as much as I should, which I think you can clearly see, which again is part of the thing of just not wanting to leave the house. Well, not that I don't want to, just not having time and just my hair is the least important thing on my list of priorities. But my six month visit is coming up soon, so probably again soon.

Speaker 1 17:02

Yeah, I never used to visit the hairdressers half as often as I do now that I make videos that go online for me, it just makes it much easier. It looks a bit better when I've had it cut and I put a bit of color in there to hide the grays.

Speaker 2 17:15

You know I've got to the point. I've got past caring now. So I've seen lots of videos of like me where I look terrible, but I just think.

Speaker 1 17:26

I think it's an age thing. I think you just become much more comfortable in your own skin, I think when you're like at college and uni and surrounded by lots of other people and you're kind of, you know, trying to find a mate yeah you know and you're out in the dating scene. You're so concerned with who you are and how you're coming across to everybody that we just become a little. We're just so inward looking at ourselves ourselves and then after a while you're like oh, this is who I am, I'm happy in my life, I've got my partner. Now I don't have to impress anyone. I keep them happy, exactly, yeah so there are a few other things that have that now are on the high street almost like a permanent thing. I don't know if you have these in your area, but they are vape shops yeah, so obviously I don't smoke or anything, so I don't go into those shops.

Speaker 2 18:14

I have seen them a lot, yeah, and also like mobile phone shops. Quite recently was quite shocked to find a shop on the high street, the main Street, where normally you would find the best shops, and there was a shop called eye crack, so it sounded like it was just selling dodgy iPhone. I couldn't believe this shop Existed. I had to go in there because the the screen of my iPhone was broken.

Speaker 1 18:43

I didn't know primarily what they do. They fix cracked phones.

Speaker 2 18:47

Yeah, they had some other phone stuff like accessories. Yeah, exactly, and they can fix things. They said to me whatever they said, I can't remember, it was about a year ago, but it convinced me it wasn't worth fixing. So I had to get a new phone. I think my thing was do I trust these people with my phone? Because you have to leave it there? And the whole establishment just didn't feel right. Like I said, even the name eye crack Put me off immediately.

Speaker 1 19:18

They tend to take the tiny units, so the teeny tiny shops where they literally yeah, it's just for a body, and then they're just surrounded, you know, head to toe in like accessories bulging from the walls. For those of people listening who've never heard the word vapor, vape is like a little.

Speaker 2 19:36

Electronic cigarette.

Speaker 1 19:38

Yeah, it's like an e-cigarette, I think some of them are reusable, but they also have disposable vapes now, which have been all over the news recently because they're causing. They're being just thrown around the streets and causing a problem. I don't see that vaping has a long future ahead of it. You know, just like smoking has been falling out of favor. I don't know, it's not probably the same in other countries, but smoking in the UK is definitely becoming less popular, and drinking as well. Drinking is becoming less. I've heard this.

Speaker 2 20:06

I've heard this, some of my friends told me this, but I didn't know over a pint in the yeah. I didn't know if this was true or just the fact. So we were talking about the younger generation, because unfortunately now we're you know getting towards?

Speaker 1 20:20

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 20:20

I mean getting very much towards middle-aged. So well, they were talking about the younger generation saying they don't drink anymore, and I was just saying, look, I think you're just talking like old people. I don't know if that's true, because I very rarely go out these days, so I think it is.

Speaker 1 20:37

I think as people become more health-conscious, as more information is made available and there's been there's more of a push for people to look after themselves and the pub the good old, you know British pub, that tradition is Pubs are struggling. A lot of pubs have been closing down.

Speaker 2 20:55

Yeah, I'd noticed that too.

Speaker 1 20:57

It's like people just don't go and hang out in the pubs in the way that they used to. You know, it used to be very much a community thing and it's not the same anymore. We have more bars and kind of like bistro Pubs where you go, and you go more for the meal or maybe, but just like the kind of average pub where you'd go for a smoke and a pint. That industry isn't thriving in the way that it used to. I have to make a confession. I have actually recently become kind of T total. Okay with the exception of, like, if it was a wedding, or you know if, if it was my surprise birthday party. I'm turning 50 and you know they bought me a bottle of bubbly or something like that. Then I'd be like, of course I'm gonna have a drink with you. But yeah, I just decided that, as boring as it might sound, I decided that after I turned 40.

Speaker 2 21:47

I was just gonna really cut everything out and just try and be as Good as I could be with Good, I actually went out for the first time in a long time like last week, the weekend before this one and that's the first time in a very long time that I got like properly drunk and yeah, we're talking years since the last time that had happened. And the next day I very much was thinking maybe T total is a better idea, because it was horrific.

Speaker 1 22:20

The worst hangover ever. Hmm how long did it take you to feel good again, Honestly?

Speaker 2 22:24

I this not an exaggeration. I think about a week like before I felt 100% because this was the first time I had had a proper hangover with children. Yeah and that also makes it a million times worse. Yeah, you don't have any time to just sit around doing nothing, which would be the ideal situation.

Speaker 1 22:47

What times your kids wake up in the morning?

Speaker 2 22:49

about six, yeah, and so luckily it wasn't a late one. We it was more of a daytime thing, so I was in by like 11, but still I Felt horrific.

Speaker 1 23:02

Well, this is part of my reasoning is that whenever I've gone out lately and you know I like I went out on Saturday I went for a meal with a friend and she was like, should we do some cocktails? And you know, ordinary I would have gone. Yeah, sure, why not? But I'm such a lightweight when it comes to drinking I I'm trollied on just a few drinks trollied. And I feel it, I really feel it. And the thought of, you know, having to get up, because my kids will wake up no later than 6 30 every single day without fail. And they are very needy children, they don't just get on with an independent play, they need me for everything all the time. And I just couldn't cope. So I just think, is it really worth that cocktail? Am I happy just drinking a mocktail? Or I tend to just drink tonic water on its own? I'm quite happy with that.

Speaker 2 23:48

So my ideal drinking, though, now is this happens more when I'm in Italy they have this thing, a pedodieval like sort of before dinner, so to have like two beers, maximum three.

Speaker 1 24:04

I would be gone.

Speaker 2 24:06

But I'm talking bottles though. Okay very rare in Italy get a nice like pint. So three bottles of beer with something to munch on whilst I'm eating and then have dinner and they're not drink anymore. So have dinner and just drink a soft drink. So then by the time you go to bed you're actually Okay, and but you still got that little buzz of. Like feeling a bit tipsy. So that that's my perfect drinking arrangement these days.

Speaker 1 24:38

I have to admit I do miss. Red wine was always my thing, you know. I love a good full-bodied red wine, especially when you're having really nice food, or with I like it with chocolate. I think I'm a heathen for suggesting red wine and chocolate.

Speaker 2 24:51

That is a good combination.

Speaker 1 24:53

Le Cures as well Around Christmas time. I'm quite partial to a Le Cure, but you know there are other things I can enjoy instead. I'm curious when a man is in a hairdresser's. I mean, obviously we can't speak for all of our gender, but when I go, because I have the same hairdresser and you just talk so much Because it's like they're a stranger. But they're not a stranger, they're not connected to your life, so you can tell them everything and I divulge all of my personal information to this stranger like every seven weeks or so when I go and visit. Is it the same for men or is it, like you know, sit there in silence or what's the deal?

Speaker 2 25:31

So for me personally, yeah, I do prefer no talking generally unless I know the person, although saying that the last time I got my haircut in the UK which this is a chain, I believe, tony and Guy that's a chain, isn't it?

Speaker 1 25:46

Yeah, big chain, Big chain, and they've got their own like products and stuff.

Speaker 2 25:50

Yeah. So I thought I'd go there, didn't realize how expensive it was, so to get my haircut at the end. Well, I went in and asked and they said the cut and dry starts from 40 pounds. And I thought, right, that's okay, it's still expensive, but okay. And I just thought, starts from what does that mean? And then when I at the end, they said it's 69 pounds just to get my haircut. Wow. But there was a woman and we really hit it off. We were chatting away like there was no tomorrow. It was great. So I did have a really good chat with her. But yeah, generally, maybe it's when I it's another man who just think I don't know, you just don't want to talk as much.

Speaker 1 26:33

but yeah, I tend to take my laptop in, actually these days if I'm busy, so I'll take my laptop and I'll have to stipulate at the beginning. She's like oh Anna, how are you? How are things? I'll say I'm really good. I do have a lot of work to do today, though, so I'm just going to get on with some work, and she'll always just check, now that your color's on, do you need a magazine or is that a silly question? That's a silly question. I've done my work.

Speaker 2 26:57

I like that. So that's basically a sign to say don't talk to me, I'm working. That's a good one.

Speaker 1 27:05

And the other thing I've noticed that I thought was quite unusual on the high street lately is that so all these kind of lovely independent coffee shops have started to close down but in place we've started to get the Starbucks and like the Pretta Montje's, and which I find unusual because I would expect that in big kind of city towns but not in kind of suburban area like high streets, and so having these kind of big chain coffee shops and fast food establishments come in was a bit odd.

Speaker 2 27:38

Yeah, I agree, and so again, it's the same where I live and that's like my fear that we're just becoming so Americanized now, that kind of losing our identity a bit, and not just us, just globalization in general. But in where I lived in Italy, which obviously has got a really strong kind of like coffee culture, it wasn't actually Starbucks. So this was in the south of Italy. I think there's only one Starbucks in all of Italy or something like that, I can't remember, but in the south I think actually they had to close because they got fined by Starbucks for, like, copying. It was basically Starbucks with a different name and I think they had to close after a few years because, like, they had copied the brand or something like that. But the fact these places even exist in there there are so many more of these popping up in Italy, like fast food places which, like, aren't really a thing and like even like the food culture there obviously is much stronger than it is over here. So it's just a shame to see just globalization really and everything just turning into what it's like in America.

Speaker 1 28:45

Do you have McDonald's?

Speaker 2 28:46

Of course, I mean McDonald's has been there forever Forever. Yeah, like with my town, even the same place. I even used to have McDonald's birthday parties when I was a kid.

Speaker 1 28:55

How did you?

Speaker 2 28:56

And so did everyone.

Speaker 1 28:57

Did Ronald McDonald come to your party?

Speaker 2 29:00

Yeah, he was there a few times and I've spoken about this a few times on a podcast. That, like, the treat was that they would take like the birthday boy or the birthday girl plus one friend to go and look around the back, so they would take you to see, like, where the burgers are made which when you're like five. It was like, oh my God, this is amazing. So didn't realize. They're probably just some spotty teenagers working there, thinking I can't wait till this is over so I can go home.

Speaker 1 29:30

Kids are so easily pleased, aren't they? Oh?

Speaker 2 29:32

yeah.

Speaker 1 29:33

I'm dreading when they start like going oh, this is just rubbish. It was my son's fifth birthday party, or birthday recently, and I was really stressed the night before because I hadn't had the time to decorate or even buy decorations or do any of the things that I wanted to do to make it special. So we found some old bunting that I just put up literally one strip of bunting in the kind of dining area, blew up three balloons that we dug out and that was it. And I only came down here and was like, oh, this is the best birthday ever. I was like really, oh, darling, keep your expectations low, we'll keep that bar low. Let's not go any more than this. This is easy for now. So, thinking back to when you were a kid, what are the shops? Because you used to have all sorts of things. Like you know, there was something called the Works and Shoes Zone, poundland.

Speaker 2 30:28

I had a look at your list and when I was reading it I was thinking do these things not exist anymore?

Speaker 1 30:32

Because I thought, they still exist. So Shoes Zone? Shoes Zone is like a cheap shoe store, isn't it? It's a chain, but for cheaper shoes. I don't know if it's a southern, northern thing. I think there are still lots of shoe zones up north, but down here I haven't seen many, if any, shoe zones.

Speaker 2 30:52

We have Clarks, oh, clarks, yeah, number one.

Speaker 1 30:56

Too expensive to buy shoes there Exactly 50 pounds for a pair of kids pumps.

Speaker 2 31:00

Exactly, but yeah, shoes Zone. I can even picture this in my mind now. I'm thinking I'm sure it's still there, but I would have to check because you know, in my mind I've still got the image of what the High Street was like like 25 years ago in my mind but in reality lots of those shops have actually gone. But Shoes Zone for me was in fact it wasn't actually on the main high street so it was less important. Like some of the big ones which I saw was on your list as well, like Woolies, woolworths, like that, when that went that was like a real blow to everyone.

Speaker 1 31:37

Yeah, I still remember hearing that on the news and just being like, oh no, so Woolworths. For those listening, how would you describe Woolworths? It had a mix of everything.

Speaker 2 31:45

Yeah, there was lots of things in there really, weren't they Like you could buy sweets in there, I'm sure you could Surprise.

Speaker 1 31:52

At the first thing you say sweets. They had the big pick, a mix selection, didn't they?

Speaker 2 31:57

Yeah, I'm sure you could get like DVD before videos and things. I can't really think what else was in there Stationery stationery. I was thinking that as well.

Speaker 1 32:07

yeah, I think it was just like a general, like home and living type of you know come in and buy all sorts of stuff, but I miss Woolworths a lot. But the thing I remember that sticks out in my mind when I think of Woolworths is it's the only time I've ever broken the law Because I'm very I think I'm quite a conscientious person. I certainly know right from wrong and I would never steal anything like off the shelves. But I would notice walking around because I had a terrible sweet tooth and I would notice that some of the sweets had fallen onto the floor and I would see that the people in the shop would sweep these sweets up and throw them in the bin. Now some of the sweets had wrappers on, so I was like they're not dirty and they're just gonna go in the bin. So I'm not doing anything wrong by just picking those up, sticking them in my pocket. It's a bit gross. You're just doing them a favor really I was helping them to clean up. Exactly, I was helping them to clean up. Oh right, that's not bad.

Speaker 2 33:05

Yeah, because, yeah, I, I can't remember if it was there or also in Wilco's. They used to do at Wilkinson's, which is also closing down.

Speaker 1 33:13

I recently heard yeah, I think they went into administration just this year.

Speaker 2 33:18

And what you used to do is use the like, weigh, the pick and mix, and then you'd get like a sticker which you would put on the bag.

Speaker 1 33:26

And then you could put some more, then you could put a few more in, yeah. I never even thought that.

Speaker 2 33:30

See, you're a clever criminal. I'm a conscientious criminal, yeah.

Speaker 1 33:35

I think the one shop I miss the most is HMV.

Speaker 2 33:39

Now, that definitely is still not on the high street, but just off the high street where I live.

Speaker 1 33:44

Really okay.

Speaker 2 33:45

So that hasn't changed, luckily for me, because yeah, even now. So just the other day I was with my wife and children and my wife was in one shop and I just went in there just to walk around.

Speaker 1 33:58

So what do they sell there? Now? Cause HMV, for those listening, is all about like it's music and it's entertainment. So it's music and films and games, and so you go in there mostly to buy like DVDs, cds and game consoles and games. So I guess there's the big gaming section. But what do they do other than that? How do they?

Speaker 2 34:17

So they sell like electronic stuff as well. So like what are they called? Like when you like this, even sounds old with this, but where you plug your iPod into it, or if you don't do that now, but like something to play music with stereo kind of thing.

Speaker 1 34:34

I'm not sure of the new name, so like speakers and things like that, speakers and like headphones. And maybe they do the retro vinyl, cause there's this big vinyl market, absolutely.

Speaker 2 34:47

Yeah, and like t-shirts, posters, in fact, even now, you know, like the old posters you could flick through. I still like just flicking through the posters.

Speaker 1 34:56

I don't know, I don't even know what most of them are these days, but I couldn't tell you anyone that's in the charts right now.

Speaker 2 35:03

Oh God. No, I didn't know, the charts even still existed, yeah, and sometimes I'm in the car and it goes, the charts oh okay.

Speaker 1 35:12

Yeah, I don't know any of this music. That's a shame, isn't it Getting old? It is.

Speaker 2 35:16

Because obviously, since, like top of the pops and things where it was like a big thing and I was talking to friends about this the other day, like when there was a song you liked, it was so difficult to actually unless you actually went to the shop and bought the single, there was no way of actually listening to it unless it came on the radio.

Speaker 1 35:34

So yeah, and you then would record it off the radio. Oh yeah, yeah, I just love that Onto your tape, yeah.

Speaker 2 35:41

But, and so we were talking about it as well. That's what made it so special of like. The song comes on the radio and it was like, oh yes, brilliant.

Speaker 1 35:50

And these days, with everything being digital, I know it's like much easier to get a hold of almost everything, but actually, like I wanted to play ET for my family, because we have movie night every couple of weeks, I was like I think my boys would love ET and I couldn't find it and we have a lot of subscriptions and we couldn't find it anywhere. I did actually find it just yesterday. It's actually on now TV, which is like the Sky product, but we don't have that subscription and then, oh yeah, we don't have that one. So I was like, well, I'm gonna have to now pay for a subscription that I don't want just to get this one film, whereas in the past you would just go and buy the video, the VHS or the DVD and then you just had it in your cupboard and you could pull it out any point or go to another high street, classic Blockbuster, blockbusters blockbusters.

Speaker 2 36:36

Yeah, the video rental shop exactly go down there, hire it, go and watch it and then take it back.

Speaker 1 36:44

Oh no, I feel so nostalgic.

Speaker 2 36:48

I don't know when that clothes I mean, that's been closed for years, obviously now. But yeah, these things just kind of disappeared, don't they?

Speaker 1 36:55

Yeah you just yeah, we've lived through such a transformative era. Cuz I still remember no mobile phones, no computers. Yeah no internet. Yeah, same and you know, life was so much simpler, I mean I'm gonna have to say now for English learners. I think you know life now isn't any language learners is much easier. But yeah, I do miss those simple days when you weren't bombarded with Messages left, right and center and everything keeping you over stimulated all the time.

Speaker 2 37:29

Absolutely. I always think of how these days, you're just never really bored in the sense that you don't have to just like Sit around and think because you just get your phone out. So if I'm ever watching TV which is very rare these days like normal TV and there's an advert break, the first thing I'll do is take my phone and then I'll Watch some stupid videos until whatever I'm watching comes back on, whilst before you had to watch the adverts and or talk to your family.

Speaker 1 37:59

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 38:01

Well, even if you're just waiting, like at the post office or something like that, just the first thing you do is just take your phone out and pretend you're busy, kind of thing.

Speaker 1 38:12

I find it overwhelming at times that, as a content creator I don't know if you feel the same, but I go through waves of feeling like really Motivated and inspired and I've got loads of energy, and then I peak where I feel overwhelmed and then I go down and then I hit this kind of rut where I just can't bear. I have to leave my phone in another room for hours because I just can't bear the stimulation. It's just too much.

Speaker 2 38:36

It's actually nice to hear someone else say that, because that's exactly how I feel, like when you get to that low and you just I can't face, and because obviously, as content creators, you kind of know what's happening. So when someone's like you're flicking through Instagram with the hook to try and get your attention and you're just like, oh, I can't be bothered with this, yeah so yeah, the phone in the other room is something I'm doing a lot at the moment. And what I even notice. If I'm uploading a video, for example, and it just takes a few seconds, normally I'll just reach for my phone, and I even still do that. My like my hand will go To get my phone, even though it's actually not there. It's just a reflex now. All right which is terrible.

Lessons, Changes, Cost of Living

Speaker 1 39:18

Yeah, yeah, we need to try and find a healthy balance. One of the mum said to me just the other day. She said I left my phone in the other room and my child might like four year old, panicked and grabbed my phone and ran with my phone like I would die without it. Mummy, mummy, you forgot your phone. Are you okay? Because she's never seen her without her phone and I think you know we're teaching our kids some really vital lessons now. We have to think what those lessons are and if that's what we want to teach them. So I, as my kids get older you know my partner and I am always like we don't have the phones at the table. We always eat meals at the table together. We don't have our phones and I think, as my kids get Phones when they're teenagers will have a box or something. They all have to put their phone away at certain times so they can learn how to interact properly.

Speaker 2 40:05

With their families. It's scary thinking of kids with phones because, like you said, we didn't have that. I remember no phones and so, yeah, it's quite scary thinking like the whole social media and things. Yeah, they've got that because we didn't have that.

Speaker 1 40:20

Yeah, well, we've gone all around the houses, haven't we All around the houses? But um, hopefully, you know, the high street will survive. Currently we have a lot of empty shops and there's more and more going every day and more different things popping up. Poundland still survives, poundland the shop where everything is a pound, although not always.

Speaker 2 40:42

It's not, it's just to get you in. Yeah.

Speaker 1 40:44

Yeah, times change, but I think some of these things will just continue to survive. The one thing I did want to wrap up on was the cost of a stamp. I'm outraged.

Speaker 2 40:55

I haven't actually bought a stamp in such I. I had to apply for a passport for my daughter the other day because she didn't actually have a British one, she only had an Italian one. But I got some kind of like recorded delivery thing. I didn't actually buy a stamp, so I actually don't know how much a stamp is, so you can tell me one pound 25 for a first-class stamp when.

Speaker 1 41:21

I was born back in 1981, it was 14 pence. Isn't that insane. One pound 25?.

Speaker 2 41:29

So. So about price inflation. So do you remember space raiders, the, the crisps? I can't remember. Someone told me recently they're like 60p now or something like that.

Speaker 1 41:39

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2 41:40

They were like 10p, yeah. So yeah, cost of living. But on the high street thing I was happy to Hear. The other day I was talking to my niece, who is 11, and I said I think I was on a sunday. I said what did you do yesterday? And she said I went into town with my friend. And I was quite pleased that that's still a thing, because I remember when I was 11 and going into town.

Speaker 1 42:05

Was it your?

Speaker 2 42:05

own, without parents and just walking around having a look in the shops Was an event, so I'm happy to hear that that that's still going.

Speaker 1 42:15

Yeah, it's, I think, the one thing when we're talking about towns in general, one thing that I'm really frustrated with and I hope does change soon Because of all the cuts, the budget cuts. The councils have no money. A lot of the public swimming pools are being shut down because they cost too much to run, and so people are really struggling to have, you know, get to a local pool and do some swimming, and when I was a kid, like that was the thing you took your pocket money after doing your chores. You got your pocket money, you went to town, you went swimming and you, I would always have one of those awful Machine soups where you put your money in and it gives you a chicken soup from powder. You know, drink that with, don't you kick out in it? Oh disgusting. And then I go into the town and walk around the shops. I go to the joke shop. Always buy something disgusting from the joke shop to put play pranks on my family and friends or something to dress up in, and I used to make videos even when I was a kid. So buy some witchy things or something and, yeah, just hang out steel sweets from Woolworth's, go listen to music in hmb. So I hope that I hope the kids of today can still enjoy Kind of some level of of what we enjoyed when we were younger. Exactly not just be obsessed with their phones.

Speaker 2 43:29

It's just one last story about going into town. I think one of the first times I did was when I bought my first album with my money and I remember again talking about phones because I was spending 10 pound. It felt like such a big thing and I actually went to a pay phone, put in 10p, to call my mum at home and say, is it okay if I spend my money on this album? And she said yeah, and then I went into the shop and spent 10 pounds and I was like oh my god.

Speaker 1 43:59

What was it?

Speaker 2 44:00

I'm actually quite pleased and quite proud of it because it is still an album I like, which was the Fuji's the score nice which was an album I still actually like a lot. But yeah, that was. I remember that day so well. It was a great day.

Speaker 1 44:15

I don't remember my first album, but I remember my first single, not as cool. I do still enjoy the song, but it was Hanson and Bob.

Speaker 2 44:25

Oh right, wow, yeah, everyone thought there were girls, didn't they? Yeah, because they had like long blonde hair.

Speaker 1 44:31

Yeah, yeah. I mean they're pretty cool. Even now, Like you know, they're still busting a group, yeah, yeah they're still like working musicians.

Speaker 2 44:41

Okay, I didn't, did not know that. Yeah every day is a school day.

Speaker 1 44:45

Yeah, I'm trying to get my kids into all the music that I've, you know, loved over the years, and it takes them a little while, but then they obsess over one song and, like the recent song was, I believe in a thing called love. Right okay, we do like that kind of like rock stuff. So I put that on a couple of times and my sons were playing in the other room Just like obsessed with magnet tiles or something really into their task, and then out of nowhere my son just comes running in and like, does a knee slide across the, across the, the? carpet, then jumps up on the couch and starts like doing air guitar, like yes, I've got you, I've got you, here's another one. And now it's like non-stop, I'm gonna get sick of it. Um, fantastic, but thank you we have. We have been here for nearly an hour, but thank you so much for covering all that ground. I'm sure the listeners would have got something very useful from that Loads of lovely vocabulary. So thank you.

Speaker 2 45:39

It's been a pleasure taking a trip down memory lane.

Speaker 1 45:42

Really nostalgic podcast fantastic Thanks for having me and I'm going to come over and do something on your podcast, so all of my listeners to definitely come over to you and have a listen to that. I'll put links in the show notes. Do you have a website where we can find all your links?

Speaker 2 45:59

I do so. It's rock and roll englishcom, but notice, it's rock n spelt n rock n roll. Actually, if you can see there, this is the flag rock and roll english. It's actually got a grammatical mistake because there should be another apostrophe there, and the same as you. I kind of put this out and someone once sent me a really aggressive message saying there should be another apostrophe there. I was like, oh yeah, I could change it, but I'm quite proud of the fact that there's a mistake in Like my brand, like logo and everything, because it, like you mentioned about you make mistakes, we make mistakes, so I'm quite proud of it now actually just stand by.

Speaker 1 46:38

It's reflective of your teaching nice and relaxed and Oaning your mistakes.

Speaker 2 46:44

Exactly so yeah, rock and roll englishcom.