Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back plus member, to another bonus episode. Today. I thought I would give you some additional phrases because well well, I was going to say because there weren't many phrases in the episode about boredom being a great form of entertainment and that's British sarcasm for you, stating something that's absolutely not true, opposite to the truth. The boredom episode was full, was jam-packed with advanced vocabulary verbose, you might say but I thought I'd give you some very common phrases, things that we use when we are just generally bored. So, without further ado, let's get into it. So, generally, when we are bored, then we could simply say I'm bored. If you're being very rude, then you might just yawn at somebody if you're finding them boring, but that is very rude, so don't do that. But you could also extend the phrase I'm bored to I'm bored silly or I'm bored stiff, or you could say it bored me to death. It was so boring I died. So those three phrases to be bored silly, to be bored stiff and to be bored to death they express extreme boredom. So, rather than just saying I'm bored, which is something my kids say a lot actually, and usually it's because they need me to give them an activity, they have a house full of toys and activities, but they need something specifically laying out for them. So they're always walking around going I'm bored, I'm bored, and the youngest one copies the oldest one. The youngest one walks around going I'm bored, and I don't even think he knows what the word bored means. But anyway, if you were really bored, then you could say, oh, I'm bored silly, or I'm bored stiff, or I'm bored to death. So to be bored to death or to be bored stiff are quite similar, I think, and I am guessing here. But I think to be bored stiff, that idea of being stiff, being rigid, is like referring to how bored you are, as being as bored as a corpse, like it's similar to being bored to death, because we often refer to a corpse, a dead body, as a stiff, a stiff. We could also and I hear this sometimes in kind of TV programs call someone a stiff. If they're quite boring or withdrawn or they don't want to get involved with something, you might hear them being referred to as a stiff. He's such a stiff, he's such a boring person. So to be bored stiff or to be bored to death, now I can really relate to being bored to death, especially in some of my earlier roles, job roles I once had a really exciting job. At least it sounds exciting on paper, but in reality it was really boring. I was bored to death every single day at work with this job. I worked as a steward on the Commonwealth Games one year and you know that sounds really exciting.

Speaker 1: 3:44

People love watching these big sporting events on the television and this time I was going to be a part of that big sporting event. I was going to be close to the action and I was close to the action but I couldn't see any of it because my job was about crowd control and just monitoring an area where, you know, people weren't supposed to go. So I had my back to the action. I think there was even, you know, a wall between me and the action. I was often just in a random corridor or stood at some fire doors or something like that, occasionally guiding people in the right direction so they could go and enjoy the action, and it was really boring. I would have to stand there for hours and hours at a time, nowhere near anybody else. So I was all on my own, a complete loner. I had nothing to do. I just kept looking at the same view for hours I couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything other than occasional distant cheerings of the crowd, and it was really boring. I was bored stiff, I was bored to death. So you can imagine that when they asked me if I wanted to do other stewarding on other events, I was very quick to turn it down. So if bored stiff and bored to death are both kind of talking about being so bored that you die, I guess to be bored silly means that you're so bored you go a little bit crazy or you start behaving in a weird and silly way, and I can definitely relate to that feeling as well.

Speaker 1: 5:27

I remember and you may remember if you've been a long time supporter, you may remember me talking about a time when I worked in a DIY store, and I'm usually fine if I have a task to do. My mind might wonder if I'm doing a basic task, but as long as I've got something to do, I'm happy, and so working in a DIY store I found quite fun actually, you know, restocking the shelves and helping customers to find what they need and make the right decision for their homes. And then there was a time when I was working in the warehouse I had to do a stocktake or something quite boring. And I was all alone for a very long time in the warehouse. I'm talking hours. I was all alone for hours just working with boxes and dust and product numbers, and I started talking to myself, just yabbering away complete nonsense. I can't even remember what it was I was saying. I think I was doing lots of different voices and having a conversation with myself and I remember this incident so clearly because Somebody witnessed it happen. Somebody caught me having a good old natter to myself. They walked in and they stood there for god knows how long watching me and eventually called out Anna, are you alright? And of course I had to say to them oh, yes, I'm fine, I was just talking to myself. Yes, I can see that, anna, Are you feeling okay? Yes, I'm probably just bored silly doing this very boring task all alone in this dark, dusty warehouse. So at that point I was bored silly. I was being a bit crazy because I was just so bored.

Speaker 1: 7:27

I mentioned earlier that you could call a person who is boring a stiff. Another word you might use to describe them is literally a bore. People might say to you oh, come on, don't be a bore. Don't be a bore, not to be confused with a wild pig, also called a bore, a wild bore. So they sound exactly the same. If you are a bore, then you are just a boring person, and this would usually be used if you're kind of pushing back against other people having fun. So if my mum I'm imagining I'm a teenager if my mum told me I couldn't invite my friends around for a Halloween party because it would just be just too crazy and too noisy and make too much mess, then I'd say, oh, mum, don't be a bore, come on, jenny's having a party at her house. Her mum doesn't mind her having a party. Come on, mum, don't be a bore. I was actually probably considered a bore quite a lot at university, and maybe beyond that as well.

Speaker 1: 8:38

I've always been the kind of person who generally thinks twice about going out and partying till the wee hours of the morning. I'm usually the one that will go out for dinner and stay for a little while afterwards and then try and catch the last train or the last bus home. I don't tend to stay out, throw caution to the wind and just see what happens, see where the night takes me, and then try to figure out how on earth. I get home at two o'clock in the morning when I'm, you know, a 45 minute drive away from my house. I don't like that. I've never liked that. I would always prefer to be in control, to know how I'm getting home, when I'm getting home, and also get a good night's sleep so I feel good the next day. Also, at university I didn't attend many of the parties because I didn't have the money. I was working a part-time job, which was usually me working in the evenings after uni had finished and at the weekends. So you know I had responsibility and when it comes to things like that I'm usually a bit of a bore. That doesn't mean I don't have a good time. When I do finally let my hair down and Go for it, then I'm all in, then I can have a great time. But I just end up regretting it when I'm walking along the streets trying to find a night bus in the middle of the night, cold, desperate for the toilet and, yeah, feeling a bit miserable. So I Try not to be a bore, but I probably am.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Now, when you are bored, you might Twiddle your thumbs. That's a way of describing being a little bit bored. You might say where have you been? What do you mean? Where have I been? Where have you been? I've been waiting here twiddling my thumbs, because you said we'd meet at four o'clock and it's now 4 30. So to twiddle your thumbs is to have nothing to do with your hands. So you imagine that you have your hands clasped together and your thumbs are kind of turning over one another. That that is the physical representation of twiddling your thumbs. To twiddle your thumbs, you're turning around and you usually do this when you're bored. You have nothing to do with your hands. So if you've been left waiting for someone, or you were just bored, you've got nothing to do, then you could describe your actions with the phrase twiddling my thumbs. I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs.

Speaker 1: 11:20

It's funny the word twiddle, twiddle. It dawned on me today that twiddle starts with T W I, which is also the first three letters of twist and twirl. And T? W? I is in twine or entwine, and all of these represent something that has a Turning motion. So when I've opened the loaf of bread and I've taken out two slices, I will twist the plastic bag up so that the bread doesn't go stale. And If I'm dancing with my children, there are points when we twirl around, we turn and turn and turn, we twirl. Or if you're wearing a dress or if you're wearing a nice outfit, Someone might say to you give us a twirl. They're saying turn around so we can see your entire outfit front and back. So we have twist, entwine, twirl, twiddle. They all involve this Circular turning motion.

Speaker 1: 12:33

Alright, I hope you're not twiddling your thumbs. I hope I'm not boring you right now. I do not want you to be bored, stiff or bored to death or bored silly. I Hope that listening to this podcast is not like watching paint dry and that's our next phrase to watch paint dry. If you describe something as Like watching paint dry, then you're saying it's boring. So this is an idiom or rather a simile. Really, it's a simile. It's saying something is like something else.

Speaker 1: 13:08

You might say I'd rather watch paint dry. So if you offer me an option of something to do that I think is boring, then I might say to you I'd rather watch paint dry. I. So that would be more interesting to me watching paint dry than doing the thing you're suggesting. I'm not a big fan of watching cricket or American football. To be fair, I'm not a big fan of watching sports, especially ones that take a very long time, where there's not a great deal of action. Golf tends to take a long time and you're spending most of your time watching them walk from hole to hole. So you know, if you ask me, do I want to come and watch the golf, then I'd say I'd rather watch paint dry. To be honest, I think it's quite boring. Or if you made me go along and then later you said how was it? Did you enjoy it? Then I might respond with oh, it was like watching paint dry. No offence, I don't mean to offend you by saying that, but it was boring for me. I won't be going again Now.

Speaker 1: 14:17

I definitely had a sense of this when my first son was born. When Jacob came into the world, that was a big adjustment for me. I was a very active, busy person before I had children. I was always going off playing squash, climbing, going to gymnastics, doing lots of different things, making tons of videos for YouTube and different acting jobs and teaching work. I was busy. So when my baby arrived, I suddenly had just one job to do and, to be fair, jacob just slept a lot, just as babies do. He just lay there, didn't do anything. He wasn't responding to me, he would just lie there and he either wanted feeding or he wanted to sleep, or I changed his nappy.

Speaker 1: 15:09

And once the first five or six weeks were out of the way, that's the crazy chaotic point of having a new baby in the house, when everyone's visiting, everyone's helping out. You're just trying to cope following your labor and delivery, your healing and everything. And then six weeks comes around and normally by that point nobody's visiting and your partner has usually gone back to work and you're left alone in the house all day, every day, with a tiny baby who doesn't do very much. And I honestly felt like, oh, what am I supposed to do? This is just like watching paint dry, just staring at this baby. What do I do with myself? I can't go anywhere. I felt very trapped in those first few months. It was a big adjustment.

Speaker 1: 16:07

Anyway, moving on to our last phrase, which I did put into the boredom podcast, the main podcast you would have heard at a loose end. Now, if you are at a loose end, it means you suddenly find yourself with nothing to do. You're probably twiddling your thumbs because you don't know what to do. Usually, being at a loose end is unexpected, perhaps because you've completed a task or activity sooner than you expected, or maybe something has been canceled and so you suddenly have nothing to do, and, yeah, you don't like doing nothing. So you are at a loose end.

Speaker 1: 16:53

At this point you would probably send some messages on WhatsApp or put out a message on a Facebook group and say hey guys, I'm at a loose end, my class was canceled and I've got a few hours this afternoon in London because I've got a meeting at the end of the day, so I can't go home. So I'm wandering around at a loose end. If anyone wants to meet up for a coffee, that would be great, let me know. So this is a very, very common phrase, just to say I find myself without anything to do and I'm bored. Come and help me.

Speaker 1: 17:30

So if someone says I'm at a loose end, then it's usually a request to come and entertain them. So go and help them if you can. All right. So we've had to be bored silly, to be bored stiff, to be bored to death, to twiddle your thumbs like watching paint dry, to be a bore or to be a stiff and to be at a loose end. I do hope you found today useful. Until next time, try and keep yourself entertained, but don't forget that boredom is also very useful. So take very good care of yourself and goodbye.