Hello, Plus Member. Welcome back to another bonus episode. I'm sitting here with a huge, freshly made, steaming hot cup of tea. And so, I thought I would call today's episode the Sunday Cuppa. In fact, I might call all Sunday episodes the Sunday Cuppa. But during today's cup of tea, that I'm going to be drinking while talking to you I promise I won't slurp. To slurp is to make that awful noise where you suck liquid up through your lips, like that. It's not very nice. I won't slurp today, apart from that little demonstration. But during today's cuppa, I'm going to share with you eight useful idioms that are related to Easter. Because Easter is coming up very, very soon. So, the first thing that comes to mind is to spring into action, to spring into action. Of course, I thought of this because we are now firmly in the springtime. The flowers are up. The buds are opening. The sun, more often than not, is shining. I'm wearing just a vest, which is nice. Sometimes I've even left the house without my coat! My goodness, such a change. So, to spring into action. This means to move, to start something with energy and enthusiasm. So, it's like you are suddenly electrocuted and you're like, ping, I'm going to go. So, you might say,"When Dexter heard the news that his wife had gone into labour while he was down at the pub, enjoying a pint with his mates, he sprang into action, getting to the hospital in record time." And actually, this morning when I woke up and the sun was shining, I sprang into action, cleaning the house and getting things organised because I felt so energised by the sun and the mild day that we were experiencing. It's gone a little bit grey now, so, it's not as nice now, but it did inspire me this morning to open up the windows, strip off the beds, dust down the sides, reorganise things, tidy up things that have been sitting there waiting to be tidied for weeks. It really motivated me to spring into action. Another phrase that we use to describe someone on a regular basis is a good egg. She's a good egg. It's such a funny little phrase. It's like a term of endearment. So, something that you would say about someone who is just nice, someone who you like, who does good things. They're genuinely a good person or a kind person, someone who's reliable and trustworthy. He's a good egg. I like him. He's a good egg. He's nice and kind and trustworthy. And obviously, I chose this one because eggs, Easter eggs, which I still haven't got any, I haven't got any Easter eggs. So, I should get on and do that. I need to spring into action after this podcast and get down to the shops to buy an Easter egg before it's too late. Because my sons, they're both good eggs. They can be a bit difficult at times. They can make life a little bit tricky, but they are essentially good eggs. Now, a phrase that is often given to me as a lesson is don't count your chickens before they hatch. If you are told not to count your chickens before they hatch, you're being warned. You're being warned not to get ahead of yourself, not to make plans based on assumptions. So, if you assume that something is going to happen and make plans based on that assumption, then that's a bit foolish because it might not happen. For example, in my previous life, as an actress, sometimes you would go to an audition, say a commercial audition. So, commercials were renowned for paying more money than any other type of acting work that you'd get. It would often be just a couple of days of work and you'd get maybe£10,000 for doing that work. It was fantastic, but trying to get cast in a commercial was very hard. You would go to, you know, hundreds of auditions and still not land a role. So, very, very competitive. And if you ever did get through the first audition and be asked to come back to be seen again, or be told that you were on a pencil, which means that they are considering you for the role. They're considering you very strongly. You're one of the candidates they might use. Then in your mind, you start assuming that you've got it. Especially if it's just between you and one other person, if you're down to the last two for the role, then in your mind, you're like, okay,"I'm going to do this amazing advert. I'm going to get£5000 for this advert. That means I can go on an amazing summer holiday. So, I know where I'm going to go. I'm going to go to the Caribbean for two weeks with my mate." And so, you go to the shops and you buy yourself a new swimming costume and you book some time off your usual job saying,"Look, I'm probably not going to be around during these two weeks in August, so I'm going to book my holiday now, so that I can take that time off work." In doing this, you're counting your chickens before they hatch. You don't know if you're definitely going to get the role, you're just assuming you are. So, it means to be patient and be cautious and not make too many plans before you definitely know what's happening. Another phrase that's used to describe a person, other than a good egg, is to say that someone is as mad as a March hare. This phrase is generally used in my experience by older people. There are many things you can be as mad as. You could be as mad as a hatter, as mad as a box of frogs. Maybe that's it really. Not many things, a few things, but you could be as mad as a March Hare. Now this probably comes from the film Alice in Wonderland or rather the book, the story. The March Hare was oh no, it was the hatter that was mad, wasn't it? I don't know the origin then. I don't know the origin of this phrase, but it just means that someone is a bit erratic. Their behaviour is unpredictable or they're a bit silly, a bit crazy. They're as mad as a March Hare. I have, at times, been described as being mad as a March Hare, being a bit crazy, a bit doolally, a bit unpredictable. And I think it's fair to be honest. I have been crazy when people call me crazy. Probably because of my workaholic existence. Like now, it's a lovely Saturday afternoon and all my family are out enjoying the park and I'm sitting in my office talking to you because that's how I roll. This is what I like to do with my time. Work, work, work. So, to be as mad as a March Hare is to be a little bit crazy. It can be used in both a positive and a negative way. Another phrase that comes to mind when I think about eggs is to have egg on your face, to have egg on your face. This makes me smile because, I have a bad habit when I'm eating of somehow managing to always have food on my face in some form, whether it's crumbs around my lips, or a spot of sauce on my cheek or food in my hair. It doesn't matter how neat I think I'm being, somehow I always manage to end up with food on my face. So, to have egg on your face is actually a phrase that's used to say that you are embarrassed because you've made a mistake. You've done something or said something that's, that's wrong or silly. And it's almost like someone has thrown egg at you and it's landed on your face. And so, it's embarrassing. And this is used a lot. You know, someone might be saying, that the Prime Minister has gone back on his promise or the prime minister has proved to be wrong in his prediction or calculations. So, he now has egg on his face. It is something you'll see in the news quite a lot. He's quite embarrassed now. He's made a foolish mistake. Another egg idiom is to put all your eggs in one basket. Again, this is something that's usually used as a word of warning. You're usually told not to put your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs into one basket. It means don't risk everything on one thing. So if you go to the horse racing, don't put all your money that you've got for the afternoon on one horse in one race, because if he loses, then everything's gone. That's all done. You're finished. So don't put all your eggs in one basket in case that basket gets dropped or lost or stolen. You should spread the risk. So as a business owner myself, it's best not to just have and rely on one source of income. It's good to try to find other ways of making money outside of what I do. And the same with my audience, with you guys, I try to connect with my audience on multiple different platforms. Definitely a reminder that I should never put all my eggs into one basket. I should never just focus on one platform. I should speak to my audience, to you guys across multiple platforms, because you never know what's going to happen. So, I would say that trying to get in touch with Facebook was like going on a wild goose chase. And this is my next idiom. To go on a wild goose chase is to chase something or search for something that's impossible to find. So, if you are trying to get in touch with a member of the council to dispute your parking fine, and the person that you call on the main number says,"Oh, yes you need to speak to the head of the parking department." And she gives you a number and you call the number and then the number says,"No, no, you don't want to speak to someone in the parking department. You need to speak to a community officer." And they give you a number to a community officer and the community officer says,"No, no, no. You need to speak to the people on main reception." And they'll put you in touch with someone called Ben. And so you try to get in touch with someone called Ben and he says,"I don't know why you're calling me. You need to speak to the parking department." And it goes round in circles. They are sending you on a wild goose chase. So, it's trying to get hold of something or find something that is impossible to find. And you just keep going around in circles and not making any progress. You're on a wild goose chase. Just like me trying to get in touch with Facebook. Now the last phrase on my list is to hatch a plan. Now to hatch is normally a word that you hear relating to eggs. Eggs hatch, or rather chicks or baby animals hatch out of their eggs. So, it's the moment when they break out. That beautiful moment when the egg cracks and their little faces appear. So cute. Even the little baby crocodiles, it's so cute when they hatch. But if you hatch a plan, it just means that you create a plan. You devise a scheme or a plan to do something. Often, when someone says they're hatching a plan, it almost sounds a little bit devious. It doesn't necessarily suggest that it's devious, but to me, I feel like it's only really used when someone is coming up with a cunning plan, a sneaky plan."Oh, I'm hatching a plan to take over the world." Okay. Do you know, I haven't even taken one sip of my tea. So, it's probably not the right temperature. Let me check. Oh, it's just on the other side of perfect. It's just on the cooler side of perfect. So, I'm going to wrap up and then I'm going to gulp down my tea. So, the idioms that we covered were spring into action, to get going, to do something with enthusiasm and energy. To be a good egg, to be someone who's good and genuine, kind and reliable. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Don't make plans based on assumptions. And then we had to be as mad as a March Hare. So, just be a bit crazy and erratic and unpredictable. To have egg on your face, which is to be embarrassed or to make a foolish mistake. To put all your eggs into one basket, to risk everything on a single venture or a single decision. To go on a wild goose chase, to be searching for something, hunting for something that's just difficult or impossible to find. And to hatch a plan. So, to create or devise a scheme Okay, well I hope you found that interesting and useful. And I look forward to tickling your eardrums all next week with our next Five a Day episodes. Until next time, enjoy your Sunday if you're listening to this on a Sunday. And I'll speak to you again soon. Until then, thank you so much for your support. Take very good care and goodbye. Oh, time for my tea!