Hello, listeners.
Welcome back to Luke's English Podcast.
Before I start the jingle and start the episode properly, I just wanted to say a couple of words here at the beginning, recording this message first thing in the morning.
And I am drowsy.
I'm half awake, half asleep, but I'm pulling it all together in order to record this very special message for you.
So what do I have to say to you?
First of all, so it's December now, and that's it, right?
This is the beginning of the Christmas period.
It's all kicked off now.
There's probably Christmas music playing everywhere and Christmas decorations.
There certainly is in my part of the world.
Anyway, because it is the holiday season, I've decided to give you a very special offer.
In fact, two special offers for Luke's English Podcast Premium.
The first one is 20% off Luke's English Podcast Premium for a year.
So if you decide to sign up to LEP Premium, then you will get a 20 discount which will last for a year.
If you choose to pay monthly, for example, which normally costs...
How much?
Six euros a month, right?
Which is like approximately the price of, I don't know, buying me.
It's like the price of half a pint of beer in a pub in central London, or maybe a couple of coffees, or just like a very large coffee from a typical coffee chain.
That's the normal price six euros a month if you pay monthly, but with a 20 discount applied, that's €480 a month.
But if you choose to pay on a yearly basis, which is where you pay one time and it pays for the whole year, then that equals €4 a month okay.
Because already, if you pay for one year, then it's already cheaper.
So there you go, 20% discount for Luke's English Podcast Premium.
And that is only for the holiday period.
And that's for December, but also for January, because maybe you're the sort of person who starts the new year with the right intentions, the best of intentions.
You think to yourself, right, I'm serious about learning English in 2026.
So I'm going to sign up for Luke's English Podcast Premium.
Well, for you, in order to encourage you, I'm extending English. this discount.
I'm extending this discount all the way through till the end of January.
So this is a limited time.
Only 20 off deal from me to you for Luke's English Podcast Premium from now until the end of January 2026.
And if you sign up, you get access to all of the episodes.
And there's something like 250 episodes of LEP Premium now covering vocab and grammar and pronunciation.
Then also, you'll receive all the new premium episodes when they are published.
And that's at least one premium series per month on average.
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I've got my method.
I've got my way of doing things now of teaching you English through my podcast.
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It's just pure gold, basically, that I'm offering to you here.
Every episode has got a video these days.
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It's a magical, wonderful thing.
You should be part of it, okay?
You really should be part of it.
Am I selling it well?
Anyway, Luke's English Podcast Premium 20 off for 12 months and that offer ends on the 31st of January 2026.
Get involved, get started.
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It's a gift giving period.
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You can gift LEP Premium to someone that you love.
What a great way to show your love and affection to those people who are close to you by offering them a 12-month subscription, or indeed a monthly subscription it's up to you but offering them a subscription of Luke's English Podcast Premium.
And if you do that, you get 20% off as well, which is not bad.
Basically the way it works go to teacherlukecouk, slash premium and then click gift a subscription.
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And yes, 20% discount until the end of January 2026.
Right, so that's that done.
Thank you for listening all the way through that.
And I'll now let you listen to this episode, which is only available on the audio podcast, because this week
The video version of me is out and about doing a walk and talk episode.
So you're getting double content this week.
You're getting a video version, which is totally different.
And you can find that on my YouTube channel.
You will also find it linked on the episode page for this episode.
I'll put the video there.
So that's the video version of me doing a mission in Paris.
I've got mission objectives and everything.
I've really sort of like raised my game with the walk and talk this time.
But then this audio version that you're going to enjoy now while perhaps you are out and about walking around.
This is a rambling episode and it's a cosy rambling episode at home.
The opposite of the video version.
For this one I am very much indoors, staying warm, staying cozy and talking about all manner of different things.
And I think you're going to really enjoy it.
I hope you enjoy the atmosphere and the sense that you are with me at home.
And I'm sharing my thoughts with you in this classic rambling episode.
So without any further ado, let's get into the jingle.
Let's get started.
And here we go.
Hello, listeners, and welcome back to Luke's English podcast.
How are you doing today?
I hope you're doing fine.
So in this episode you join me not in my podcasting room, but in my flat in my home.
There's noise in the background.
I don't know if you can hear that.
I don't know if that's being picked up by the microphone.
I will explain everything in due course.
This is a rambling episode.
And in fact, it's an audio only episode.
So there is no video version for this one.
The reason for that is that this time I've decided to do two episodes.
There's a a video and an audio episode, and they are different things.
The reason for that is that the video version is going to be a walk and talk episode.
I haven't actually recorded that, but at some point I'm going to get my video camera and microphone and I'll go out and go on a little adventure somewhere in Paris.
I'm thinking that perhaps this time I can go for a walk up the hill to Montmartre and explore and talk about the things that I encounter along the way.
So that will be what I've uploaded onto my YouTube channel this week.
But for the audio podcast, I've decided to upload something completely different today.
That's just because I feel like maybe the audio version of a walk and talk wouldn't really work.
I've kind of decided that if I do walk and talk episodes, that I'll do something completely different on the audio version.
So you kind of get two different things.
And if you want to, you can go and watch the video version.
Just head over to my YouTube channel and you can see the walk and talk that I've uploaded this week.
But if you're just listening to the audio, then I kind of think that perhaps an audio only episode is going to be better to listen to, because often the audio version of a walk and talk.
God, this is complicated.
The audio version of a walk and talk episode sometimes isn't.
Isn't that great?
Because you can't see the things that I'm talking about.
And sometimes they're a bit too noisy with street noise and buses and cars and scooters and what have you?
So this is my attempt to keep things simple.
So, while the video version of me is out and about today, walking around, the audio version of me is doing the opposite.
I am very much staying indoors today and having a kind of relaxing time, restful time, not moving very much.
In fact, at this very moment, I am lying flat on my back in the middle of the living room, which just seemed to be the best place, just the best position and best place to be at this moment in time.
The reason for that is that earlier on I was kind of sitting at the kind of kitchen counter that we have drinking a cup of tea, and I looked over at the living room, because it's all one room.
I looked over at the living room and there was a shaft of sunlight coming through the window and this shaft of sunlight just landed perfectly on the the the rug that we've got in the middle of the room and it was as if God was saying to me Luke, lie down here and just lie down in this spot and let the sun shine, rest on your face for a while and everything will be okay.
That's kind of the message I got.
So I just put the cup of tea down unfinished and just flopped down on the floor, and I'm still here lying on my back.
Um, and, uh, And it is good.
It is nice.
The time of year is late autumn.
And I mean, it's not even winter yet, but it's very pleasant to get some sunlight.
And just to let the sunlight, as I say, just sort of shine on my face.
It's a lovely feeling.
Normally I get this feeling kind of near the end of winter, kind of like february or march or something, where you've been through a the entire winter and you've you've been starved of sunlight for months and then you get one sunny day um, the leaves are still not out on the trees, but the sun is shining, and you go outside and sit on a bench or something and just ah, just let your just sort of raise your face up to the sunlight and just sit there while the sun shines on you and it's like your, your the skin on your face and your arms or whatever just drinks in this, this light.
Uh, i don't know the science behind it.
What's going on there?
What's all that about?
I know there's something to do with is it vitamin d melatonin, i don't know circadian sleep rhythms that are dictated by our exposure to sunlight.
I'm not entirely sure what it all is, but i do know that sometimes just getting a good dose of sunlight is very therapeutic, and so that's kind of what i'm doing right now.
But yeah, it's actually late autumn as i'm recording this and it's not like i've been that sun starved for very long.
But i suppose just a few weeks of, you know, longer evening, sort of darker evenings, and just generally less sunlight means that apparently this is what I needed today to top myself up on a bit of light.
Oh, noises.
I don't know if you could hear that.
I've got the windows closed.
But Paris... Oh, Paris is a noisy place.
And I've recorded episodes from this room before and I've recorded ones in the past with the windows open and you've heard the noises outside.
We used to have a building opposite us that was being kind of refurbished in a very, very big way.
Someone's still beeping their horn.
The building opposite us was being worked on and refurbished.
There was a lot of building work going on and for years, like how long?
Three years, something like that.
It was just constant drilling and hammering and scraping and all sorts of stuff.
That's all done now, but it's still a noisy place.
The road outside is a one-way street, like many streets in Paris.
And as a result, sometimes the traffic kind of builds up.
If there's just something blocking the road, it could just be a delivery van or whatever that's.
Often it just a van that stopped to deliver something and the traffic backs up all the way along the street and the drivers all start to get angry and they start beeping their horns.
So there's constant beeping and shouting and the crashing and banging of people loading and unloading things from the back of vans and lorries and All that sort of thing.
But I'm trying to just sort of let all these noises just drift over me today.
Certainly at this moment.
There are other noises going on as well, which you might hear occasionally.
And that is the... There are some people working on the front door of the apartment opposite ours.
And so what happened is that actually yesterday... someone tried to break into their apartment.
Beep.
There's another person beeping their horn.
Let me get up and see what's going on.
I'm going to have a look through the window.
This is definitely a rambling episode today, listeners.
Oh yeah, traffic is backed up all the way along the street.
Let's open the window.
Let's see what's happening.
I'm going to stick my head out of the window here.
Try not to drop this microphone.
Let me stick my head out the window and describe the scene in the street below me.
Okay, so whatever was blocking the street apparently has stopped now and the traffic is able to move forwards.
But there's essentially still a traffic jam all the way down the street with cars and lots of vans, people on scooters finally able to move forwards, a cyclist on a bike trying not to get squashed by the cars and the scooters, and what have you?
That's the scene out here at the moment.
And the sky is pretty good.
It's pretty blue.
A few clouds knocking around.
This is why the sunlight has been shining through my window this morning.
They have opened up the water valves in the street.
And so there is water flowing down the gutters of the road.
This is a thing they do in Paris and I think other cities in France.
That there are kind of water valves or water taps in the drainage systems in the gutter.
You know, in a road, you've got the road where the cars go.
And then there's the pavement where people walk.
And the bit where the pavement meets the road.
This is called the kerb.
And then the bit directly next to the kerb in the road where perhaps water runs if it's been raining, or where cigarette butts and other dirt collects right, this kind of bit at the edge of the road, just next to the kerb, right that's called the gutter.
And so in a lot of streets in Paris and I think in other places in France, often you see water flowing down the gutters of roads.
And it's nice.
It's nice to see running water.
It's like a little stream that runs all the way down the street.
When I first moved here, I was always kind of surprised by this.
Like, how can they...
How can they waste so much water?
They just turn on the tap and just let the water just flow down the street.
I think it must be, I guess it's their way of keeping the streets clean.
You know, it's one way of keeping the street clean.
But if you keep the water running, it washes away all the dirt that builds up.
Suddenly very noisy because they're doing work on the door again.
I'm going to move into the bedroom, where maybe it's going to be a bit quieter and I can continue to lie down.
I'm trying to have a restful day.
So anyway, that was the little view from the window.
A typical morning, a weekday morning here, with people going about their business and lots of cars in the street and running water, washing away all of the cigarette butts and things that get flicked into the gutter.
And Blue sky, a few clouds and sunlight shining through the window, giving me that little moment of sunbathing which I think is doing me the world of good.
It's funny, isn't it, that?
I mean, sunlight, obviously, you've got to be careful with it.
It can be dangerous.
I mean, it's basically radiation, isn't it?
Isn't it?
Again, I'm not a scientist, so I can't really say, but what is sunlight?
It's just a form of sort of filtered radiation.
No, obviously most of the harmful rays from the the light of the sun are filtered out by our atmosphere, by the ozone layer or whatever it is that surrounds the earth, but of course still uv, ultraviolet light does get through and of course we need to be careful of that right.
So we need to protect ourselves from the sunlight to an extent, especially in the summer months when the sun is at its strongest.
So we have to put suntan lotion, sunblock on and all that stuff and avoid the sun.
But then just occasionally, just getting the sun on your skin is exactly what you need, isn't it?
So I was saying that the neighbors unfortunately for them, someone tried to break into their apartment yesterday.
I came home with my son yesterday.
I picked him up from creche and came home in the evening and a few of my neighbors were kind of gathered around downstairs.
And I gathered that, yeah, they'd been someone to try to break in.
And this is actually the second time this has happened fairly recently, because we actually got burgled.
That means that people broke into our, our apartment and robbed some stuff.
When was it now?
Is it, Is it maybe even six months ago that this happened?
I think I mentioned it in an episode of Luke's English Podcast Premium, but I haven't really talked about it on the podcast.
Yeah, we got burgled.
And I mean, it was just awful.
If it's ever happened to you, if you've ever had things stolen from your home, if you've ever had your home broken into, you'll know it's just, it's just horrible.
You feel completely violated.
So what happened when we got burgled is that I was I wasn't even very far away.
I was out about to have lunch and I got a phone call from someone who lives in our building saying you need to come home quickly.
So I realized it was serious and I rushed home.
I was back within about five minutes and went upstairs and And sure enough, the front door of our apartment was off its hinges.
The hinges are the things that attach a door to the wall, right?
And allow the door to swing open and close.
These are the hinges.
The door was off its hinges.
It had been smashed off its hinges.
I don't know how they'd done it.
Maybe they just kicked it, but it was.
It was completely broken and off its hinges and still partially attached to the wall, but broken open to the extent that you could crawl in.
There was a gap that you could crawl through.
And I took a look at this and I thought, oh my God.
But my first thought was like surely surely, that that gap is too small and they won't have actually gone in and taken stuff.
So I squeezed through this hole in the, this gap, basically where the door had been broken open, started to look around the flat and didn't really see much evidence of anything having been taken.
But then I noticed, oh, okay, the smart speaker is gone.
There's just the cable.
The speaker is gone.
Oh, and my Bose Bluetooth speaker is gone.
Oh, and the iPad's gone.
Checked under the under the sofa oh, my wife's laptop is gone, and but they hadn't smashed the place up or anything.
But then I went through into the bedroom, which is where my wife has a lot of jewelry and stuff.
Or she had a lot of jewelry not not that much expensive stuff of her own, but certainly things she inherited from her grandmother when her grandmother died, and She left a lot of jewellery to my wife.
Anyway, I came into the bedroom area and we got some shelves where some of my wife's jewellery was kept and all of the boxes.
All the stuff was tipped out onto the floor.
And then I went into our dressing, which is like a tiny room where we keep clothes.
And everything was all over the place.
All the clothes were on the floor.
And...
They'd somehow managed to find our most valuable things.
And that included basically some jewelry that I bought for my wife which had not just monetary value but a lot of What's the word for it?
Sentimental value as well.
Including a jewel that I bought her when our daughter was born.
And it was supposed to be... handed down to our daughter at a certain time.
And also my wife's wedding ring, which she had removed.
She removed it when she was pregnant with our son, because when a woman is pregnant, sometimes hands or feet can swell slightly.
And so her hand had swollen a bit and it was uncomfortable to wear the ring.
So she'd taken the ring off and kept it in a small box on the shelf.
And the ring was still there.
And they took it along with loads of stuff from my wife's grandmother.
And so this was really devastating.
Very painful experience, combined with the sheer inconvenience of losing the other things, like the iPad and other bits and pieces, and the inconvenience of having a door that's broken.
And then there's the kind of emotional side of it which is beyond just having our things taken, these very special things and valuable things.
Just the fact that some people we don't know how many people one, probably two had just been in our apartment with their shoes on, which seems like a small detail, but it represents something.
We take our shoes off when we come in.
We want to keep the place clean.
But the idea that these people had just walked straight in with their shoes on walking everywhere and they'd been in our bedroom and they'd had their hands all over our stuff and all our stuff was all over the floor.
And lying in bed that night the two of us in bed that night, lying there thinking this feels like we've been violated because people strangers, who didn't care one inch for us were in this room just a few hours ago and just walking around, tipping all of our stuff on the floor and taking our most valuable things.
I mean, just, it's horrible.
Thankfully, we're over it now.
And some things have been fixed in terms of well, I bought my wife some more, some more jewelry for her birthday, for our anniversary.
And that has kind of made up for it.
It's.
Actually I bought her another ring, which I prefer, because prefer the the new one, to be honest.
So i feel like it's that's sort of made things a bit better in a way, but it's still a horrible feeling.
We we've had to get an alarm installed.
So we had an alarm installed, which has given us a lot more peace of mind and various other things.
But then yeah, yesterday i came home and our neighbors opposite us had nearly been burgled.
And I understand what happened is that their door was forced open.
I guess whoever did it had a big metal bar, what we call a crowbar, one of those strong metal bars that can do something like force open a door.
So they jammed the bar into the gap of the door and the wall and forced it open.
But because our neighbor's installed an alarm at the same time that we did because, you know, they were so shocked by the fact we'd been burgled that they decided to install an alarm as well.
The burglars didn't realize there was an alarm and the alarm went off and, of course, the the burglars decided to run away at that point.
Um because, even though i i guess when our place got robbed, I get the feeling that they did it within a couple of minutes.
They must have been so fast.
And it was so, let's say, audacious.
That's the word.
Audacious meaning audacious.
This is the word we use to describe a robbery which is incredibly brave.
Although brave is, It's positive, isn't it?
It's a positive word.
I don't want to use a positive word for what they did, but it's something that just seems like it was such a big risk and required so much.
Let's call it bravery.
And it's almost, I don't know how to describe it.
It seems very cheeky.
Hold on, I'm going to need to Google this word again.
Because although it's definitely the right word to use, I'm struggling to define it for you.
Let's have a look.
Oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com.
Audacious.
I'm perhaps feeling a bit lazy today and I'm not in full teacher mode.
Willing to take risks to do something that shocks people.
There you go.
I mean, I was...
Hartley, there wasn't I.
I said it was risky, I said cheeky, but shocking would have been the right word.
So if something is audacious or someone is audacious, it means that if someone is audacious, it means that they are willing to take risks to do something that is shocking.
So it's kind of like daring.
An audacious move, an audacious plan, an audacious robbery right, it's so shocking and it's apparently would have been so dangerous for the people who did it, but they did it anyway.
So anyway, it's it's the word we use to describe a robbery where obviously the people who are the victims of the robbery are shocked, or anyone who's witnessed it are shocked.
And you also think well, it was such a risky move.
And if, for example, it happened during the day um, Both of these ones our burglary and the attempted burglary of the flat opposite, Both of them happened in the middle of the day.
And as I've said, the street outside is really quite busy.
And there's people coming and going.
And we are not on the ground floor of the building.
We are up on one of the upper floors.
And you think to just come in... First of all, there's a door in the street...
Okay, there's like a big door in the street and you need a code to get in.
But of course you know these codes.
It's very hard to keep them secret because delivery drivers and whatever, they all get the code and then eventually the code gets shared around.
You change the door code from time to time but it's very hard, almost impossible really, to keep that code completely secret.
So I mean it's it's, it's a first line of defense against intruders, but it's not perfect by any means.
And then after that there's another door which you have to go through to get into the staircase and where our apartment is, and that requires another code or it requires a key fob, a kind of magnetic key fob.
And again, that's another thing.
It's, it's a sort of a line of defense against intruders, but it's not perfect because the key fob i think.
I think it's possible to, i think it's possible to copy that key fob or maybe share it, i don't know.
I guess criminals have got ways of getting around these things and so I guess people are able to get in, but to just walk in when you're not, you don't live in the building you just just to walk in and just get through both doors and then just go up the stairs in a, a building that's got maybe like one two three four five six seven eight nine, ten like, maybe it's like 15 apartments in this, in this um, And it's in the middle of the day.
So you imagine that people could easily just be coming and going.
And you go in and you smash in one of the doors and go into the flat.
A flat which doesn't actually have another escape point.
You just go into an apartment which has got one front door and loot the place.
And then just leave and go out into a busy street in the middle of the day.
It just stunning, really.
So that's an audacious robbery um, and anyway yeah opposite, the robbers smashed the door but the alarm went off and that scared them away.
Uh thankfully, which just proves that you know having an alarm, i mean, who knew?
Right, what a surprise.
It is actually a good idea.
The thing is with the, the place opposite us, because they'd recently had their door painted and The door was painted a different colour and the painters had removed the sticker on their door, the sticker which said this flat has an alarm.
So when they installed the alarm, they put the sticker on the door, which is obviously a very important thing to do, because it shows any would-be robbers that there is an alarm here, so don't try and break the door open.
But the sticker had been removed, so of course the robbers weren't aware that there was an alarm, and that's why they smashed the door in.
So luckily for our neighbors, they don't have to deal with all of the other stuff the loss and the pain of having your place burgled but they do have the inconvenience of having to replace the door, and that's what's going on with them, in fact.
I'm looking through the little peephole in our front door, looking across the corridor, and I can see them doing their thing, working on the door.
So anyway, that's why there's some noise.
Talking of audacious robberies, did you hear about the theft of jewellery at the Louvre Museum?
Did you see this story?
I'm sure it's a pretty big story around the world, the sort of news that travels...
It actually happened last Sunday, as I record this, just a few days ago, in fact.
And wow, that was an incredible one.
So some robbers broke into the Louvre Museum and they stole some jewelry and escaped and seem to have got away with it, which is like something out of a film, isn't it?
It's like something out of some sort of movie, right?
So here's the breakdown of what happened.
Sunday morning in Paris, a group of thieves broke into the Louvre in broad daylight.
There's a nice phrase, in broad daylight.
It means in full daylight, in broad daylight.
They targeted a display of Napoleonic jewellery.
So this is jewellery from the Napoleonic period, but also jewellery, I think, that was owned by Napoleon or members of Napoleon's family.
Kind of like the equivalent of the crown jewels in the UK.
If you've ever been to the Tower of London in London, then you might have seen the displays of the crown jewels, these amazing jewellery crowns and necklaces and other forms of jewelry owned by the royal family for for generations and generations.
Obviously in France they don't have a royal family, but this is like very old, very valuable jewelry closely connected to France's history, so napoleonic jewelry.
They stole eight pieces, including diamond and sapphire tiaras, necklaces and brooches.
The robbers used a ladder and a battery powered cutter to enter through a first floor window right, so they actually used a sort of uh, i think it's like a truck with a ladder on the back which extended up to a first floor balcony, and they climbed up and this was a, I think, something like 850 in the morning.
I climbed up an electric powered cutter, just cut straight through the glass.
And I don't know if there was an alarm.
I don't think so.
Just cut straight through the glass, went in.
It took them about 10 minutes.
So yeah, around 9.30 in the morning.
It took about 10 minutes.
They went in, grabbed all this stuff and then they escaped on scooters which, if you've ever traveled through central Paris, you'll know that going by car is often very slow going.
You know, for example, the traffic in my street.
It's often so much traffic that it takes ages to get anywhere by car.
But if you're on a scooter, you can kind of weave in and out of the traffic.
And there are lots of scooters in this city driven by, You know, all sorts of people, especially sort of like food delivery drivers and stuff.
Anyway, they escaped on scooters and they dropped one valuable crown on the roadside as they fled and just left it there.
Imagine walking down the street and just finding this crown from the Napoleonic period.
Oh, that's an interesting find.
The theft was caught on some CCTV.
That's closed circuit TV.
But security cameras were reportedly missing in several rooms.
Investigators believe that the thieves will melt down or recut the gems to sell the raw materials, which shows that the Louvre was targeted by these thieves not because it contained these historic items.
So they weren't stealing them because they were Napoleonic items jewels, but they were stealing them for their monetary value, right?
Do you know what i mean?
So um, they stole them because they just wanted the raw material, they wanted the gold, they wanted those diamonds uh, they didn't care what form they were in.
And so yeah, investigators believe that the perhaps the first thing that the robbers would do is melt it all down.
So melt down the gold And remove the jewels and perhaps recut them.
And now, if you sell the raw material like that, obviously you'll still make millions, but the value is not going to be nearly as much as the items as they were.
Which is sad, really.
That's a pity that those items will have been destroyed.
Because, of course, no one's going to buy these tiaras and necklaces and things and brooches.
No one's going to buy them like that because they will be such hot property that no one will take the risk of actually owning them.
Because what can you do?
You can't sell them.
You can't hand them down to your children because these are stolen goods.
But...
But the robbers knew about this and they just didn't really care because well, if you think about it from the robber's point of view, they want jewellery.
That's their business is to, you know, steal precious items and sell them on.
And where do you get jewellery?
Well, they could have tried to rob perhaps one of the jewellery shops, one of the brands like Cartier or or something like that.
But these places, like a brand like Cartier, will have much, much higher levels of security than the Louvre.
And this is another sort of sad thing about this.
This robbery really sort of means it.
Really this robbery really kind of shows us that the Louvre and lots of other kind of state owned museums, The Louvre is actually really underfunded and the security at the Louvre you can see is very low in fact.
And that's just because the museum hasn't received enough funding.
And this is...
I guess what is this?
A criticism of government policy not to protect the jewels, not to look after the Louvre more, more carefully?
Or is it a sign of the times that it just shows that you know there's there's not a lot of public money going around, not a lot of public spending to the point that a national government museum housing these precious national monuments is underfunded and therefore, um a security risk.
It's vulnerable to this kind of thing and, in a way, it was only a matter of time really that something like this happened.
The Louvre obviously, is famous for housing the Mona Lisa, and the Mona Lisa is really really well protected.
It's insane like the level of security around that painting is is really high but um, That seems to be a bit of an exception.
And that the museum generally is quite vulnerable.
So that was an interesting story.
Amber, my friend Amber, who is a tour guide, she goes to the Louvre quite a lot.
She went down there that day to do some tour guiding and found the place completely closed and shut off.
And the whole area was cut off by police.
Maybe she will tell us about it next time she's on the podcast.
But wow, what an audacious daytime heist of the Louvre Museum.
Yeah.
Okay.
So they're still.
They're now kind of you can hear drilling or sawing or something going on from the flat opposite.
But yeah, there you go.
So the Louvre Museum. my apartment i mean it's not exactly the same level is it it's not the same level it's not like we our jewelry is was at the same level as napoleon's uh stuff but i know which one hurts more for sure i mean i don't know how napoleon would feel he'd probably be pretty annoyed wouldn't he What would he do?
I don't know.
What would Napoleon do?
Invade someone?
Just generally.
That seems to be what he did a lot.
So I'm just pottering around my flat today.
What else did I want to say?
I did have some other things I wanted to mention.
You know what?
Actually, the sun is shining down on the rug in the middle of the living room again.
And it is inviting me once again to lie down and enjoy it, which is exactly what I will do.
I mean, I've got a sofa here right next to me, but the sofa isn't in the sunshine.
And sometimes, I don't know, sometimes I just find lying on the floor to just be the best thing.
Just lie on my back on the nice, flat, straight floor.
It's good just to let your spine stretch out and just yes, here we go again the sunlight on my face.
Apologies if you can hear the sound of the drilling and whatever in the background, but you know, at least it gives you a sort of an immersive sense of the environment I'm in.
Life can be stressful, can't it?
It can life can be stressful, especially when you're surrounded by constant noise everywhere.
That's what life is like in a big city, and It's never just quiet and still.
Even without the drilling, I can just hear the hum of the city outside.
And that's what cities do, isn't it?
They hum.
It's just a kind of If you're in a big populated area, just stop for a moment and just have a listen to the sound.
It's like the whole place is just... Vibrating.
Just the... combined sound of all the cars driving around all the roads and the scooters and the buses and the sounds of work being done on buildings there's always work there's always scaffolding somewhere there's always drilling it all combines to create this general hum it's almost like the ground is vibrating you've got underground trains metro trains traveling around underneath your feet planes and things flying over the top it's a very very busy and sort of energetic environment i'm sure that drilling is off-putting i can't keep going with that noise it's a pity because that means i'm gonna have to leave my lovely spot in the sunlight there I've moved on to the bed which is probably a little bit quieter but anyway it's life could be stressful and when you're surrounded by busy noisy things going on it can be difficult to find moments of peace and tranquility but you know I think it's possible I think it's still possible if it's all about trying to find the right state of mind and finding ways to switch off And just letting these things sort of just drift past you, drift over you.
So sure, they're doing drilling next door.
But, you know, but it's okay.
I'm not going to let it disturb me.
I'm having a, I'm supposed to be having a day off today.
Supposed to be.
I decided, I got quite a lot of stuff done this week.
And I decided, right, well, you know what, I'm just going to, I'm going to take the day off.
Actually, what I'm supposed to be doing is waiting around here in order to collect keys from the guys who are doing the door opposite.
My neighbour asked if I didn't mind collecting the door keys from the guys because...
He's gone away this weekend.
He's travelled somewhere else and so he's not around.
So he asked if I would be able to pick up the keys for him.
And so that's why I'm staying here today, so I can be around.
So that when those guys have finished doing the door, that they can just knock on my door and I'll pick up the keys.
And I said yes because I'm such a wonderful, friendly and helpful neighbour.
But also... because I'd already planned to not really do very much and stay at home today.
And so that's kind of the vibe for this day is just to sit around, lounge around, potter about in the apartment, maybe do a bit of cleaning and tidying little bits of housework, clean up the kitchen, tidy away all the toys and bits and pieces that are normally left behind lying around the place.
Like the evenings, the mornings with with two kids, they can be quite chaotic.
Toys end up sort of strewn all over the floor.
Especially in the morning.
It's often a mad rush to get out of the apartment in order to get to school in time or to get my son to crash in time, and then we have to get to work in time And it's often a bit of a mad rush and the place can be left in a slightly messy state.
So it's nice sometimes to come back home.
If I have the option if I don't have a lot of work to do to come back home and just sort of like spend a bit of time here and tidy up a bit and take moments to just lie down on the floor, for example, if I, if I want to, it's a good way to recharge your batteries.
But anyway, I did actually have.
I was thinking that I wanted to do a rambling episode soon, and so that's what I'm doing.
I'm back in the sun again.
It seemed to have stopped making noise, so I'm.
Every time I can, I'm going to come back into the living room here and I did note down earlier some things i wanted to mention in the next rambling episode, and so let's just see if i can remember them okay.
So i wanted to say premium subscribers hello.
I guess by the time you listen to this, i will have published new premium series.
P72 is the one i'm working on at the moment but, as i said, by the time you listen to this, i will have finished that and published it.
So check out p72.
It's an ask me anything series.
I think there are about four parts, and in each part i answer questions from listeners about a range of different things.
There are language points, various different language points when i'm teaching things about, And also questions about, for example, my advice on using TV series or books to help improve your English.
Questions about how I use artificial intelligence, how I use AI as an English teacher and podcaster, to what extent.
I use it in my work and how I feel about it and stuff.
I think this is a question that we all have to face to an extent.
To what extent is AI useful?
To what extent could it be damaging to the things we do?
And a range of other questions and points.
Have you heard it?
Have you seen those episodes?
Have you heard them?
P72, Ask Me Anything, parts one, two, four.
And then P73.
Again, I haven't actually recorded it yet, but I think by the time you listen to this it will have been published.
And P73 will be a vocab review from The Door in the Wall the story, the short story, The Door in the Wall, which I'm planning to upload in a few weeks.
And Yeah, so as I record this now, I haven't actually published The Door in the Wall or the premium series that follows it.
So I've got no idea what you think of it or what people will think of it.
I hope that it goes down well.
The story itself is, I think, really interesting. which I have recorded.
So I've recorded the story episode, but I just haven't published it yet.
So I don't know what people are going to think.
I guess the story is going to be popular because it is a fascinating story.
I hope that my rambling and there's about an hour of me rambling about what the story means and different interpretations of the story and the things it makes me think of quite a lot of.
I don't know, how shall I call it?
Self-indulgent rambling?
I hope that people enjoyed listening to that.
It's hard to know, isn't it?
I mean, even after all these years of doing this podcast, it's still hard to predict exactly which things people are going to respond to.
And in a short story episode, what I normally want to do is tell a story that is going to be entertaining.
And then quickly discuss the meanings and interpretations of the story.
And then get into the language analysis.
You know, look at usually vocab in the story and use that as a way to teach vocab.
And if I can do all of those things in a relatively sort of reasonable episode length ideally it's an hour long then that's great.
Then I know that's a good package.
What happened with the door in the wall is that the story itself took a bit longer than expected.
Surprise, surprise.
And then my summary of the main events of the story, plus my rambling interpretations of the meaning of the story.
That ended up taking quite a long time, which is fine.
I mean, I think that, I think it should be interesting.
And then I get into some of the vocab review and and then continue all the vocab review in the premium series that follows it.
What am I trying to say?
I suppose it ended up being long and there was a lot of rambling and not that much language teaching in the episode.
But you know again, sometimes it's hard to tell what people really respond to in those short story episodes when I read the comments and That people have written in response to those short story episodes.
Often the comments relate to my thoughts and my interpretations and my discussion of the stories, themes and meanings, Rather than the actual language teaching that I'm doing using the story.
So, although I know that people listen to my podcast for learning English and they, they come for the English and But, as far as I can tell, the stuff that really makes an impression on people, the stuff that really grabs people or the stuff that really kind of resonates with people, is the other stuff.
It's like the bits between the English teaching.
It's the personal things, the thoughts, the feelings, the memories, the stories, the anecdotes.
That's the stuff that seems to actually get through to people naturally.
And that's what people connect with as much as the actual teaching.
So, you know, doing this podcast, it's sort of a question of trying to balance these things.
Balancing, just simple.
Well, I say simple, it's not always simple, but balancing English teaching right with something else, with something more personal right.
Like this episode, for example, which is certainly much more of an attempt to just make a personal connection, in English, of course.
Anyway, premium subscribers, P72, Ask Me Anything, and P73, Language Review for The Door in the Wall.
Have you heard them?
I just want to remind you that they are available.
So if you're a premium subscriber, you should know that they exist, plus loads of other stuff as well.
So check them out.
If you are a premium subscriber and for some reason you don't listen to the episodes, then you know check them out.
Just sign into your premium account at teacherluke.co.uk slash premium.
Use the email address you used when you signed up and Supercast will send you a code to help you log in and then, once you're in, you'll see all the episodes there.
It's all there.
All the content is there and you can easily add all of the episodes to a podcast app on your phone, for example, spotify apple podcasts.
You can easily connect lep premium to your podcast app of choice and then you you've got all the episodes there, plus the episode descriptions, which contain all pdf links and video links.
So check them out.
They are there, they're waiting for you.
If you're not a premium subscriber well, you could access all that stuff.
Just sign up.
Teacherlukecouk, slash premium and i upload a lot of premium content these days.
What else?
The other thing i wanted to mention was that i've been on quite a few other people's podcasts recently.
It seems this autumn, Lots of people decided they wanted to invite me onto their shows, which is really nice.
It's always nice to feel wanted, you know.
It's nice to feel that people think that you are worthy of an invitation onto their podcast.
And so I've been featured on four different shows over the last few weeks.
There is first of all Anthony Rotuno's Film Gold, which is a film review podcast podcast and uh, i was on film gold talking to anthony about monty python's the meaning of life, which is the last monty python film, and anthony and i discuss the film and the scenes of the film.
We assess the film um, describe each scene, talk about all of it, and so actually that's A swap cast means a podcast where two different podcasts record one episode and it gets published on both of those shows.
So Anthony, I think, has published it already.
Certainly the video version is available on his YouTube channel.
And I'll put a link to it in the description of this episode so you can check it out.
But it's a conversation between the two of us about Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
And it's sort of like the third in a trilogy of episodes that Anthony and I have done about Monty Python movies.
You might have heard the first two because I published them as episodes of my podcast.
There's Monty Python and the Holy Grail from a couple of years ago, and then Monty Python's Life of Brian from a few months ago, and now Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
Yes, as I said, the video version is available now.
The podcast version might be available on Anthony's film podcast, which is called Film Gold.
You could watch the video version right now, but it will arrive at some point on my podcast.
I will publish the audio version soon. at some point.
Um, but if you want to just check it out now, you can uh check out the?
Uh the video version link in the description, and you'll also find it on the website page.
Uh for this episode on my website.
So that's Monty Python's The Meaning of Life with Anthony Rotuno.
What else?
I was also invited onto the Level Up English podcast, uh, with Michael Lavers.
Do you listen to the Level Up English podcast?
Maybe you do.
I'm sure that the We share listeners.
Michael is an English teacher from England, like me, and a podcaster.
And yeah, the Level Up English podcast.
He invited me on to that four years ago, and we had a conversation.
And then just last week, he invited me on again, and we had a nice chat.
And we talk about stuff like well, I think the title of the episode is Secrets of Podcasting, something like that.
And so we talk a lot about behind the scenes things, about our decisions relating to making podcast episodes, recording walk and talk episodes in the street, our inspirations, challenges and other details about what it's like to make our podcasts.
So you could check that one out.
You'll find a link in the description.
Otherwise it is available on michael's podcast, the level up english podcast.
Also, i was invited onto the british english podcast.
That is another show for learners of english and it's hosted by charlie baxter, who i've spoken to on my podcast and his podcast before.
Maybe you know about the british english podcast.
Charlie invited me on to do a fun concept called Room 101.
Room 101 is actually a TV show, a kind of chat show that you can see, I think it's on the BBC.
And essentially in Room 101, the idea of the show is inspired by the book 1984 by George Orwell.
If you've read that book, you might know that Room 101 is essentially a kind of a room where all of your worst fears are kept.
And if you've been a very naughty boy in the society in which this book is set, this dystopian sort of totalitarian society where everyone is completely under total government surveillance and control at all times.
If you commit crimes against the state of any kind, you could be taken to room 101.
And because the state knows everything about you, they know exactly how to torture you.
And they find your deepest, darkest fears and they torture you with them.
So this is Room 101.
It doesn't sound very fun or entertaining, but the BBC chat show is essentially sort of inspired by this.
Basically, Room 101 is a place where you can put all of the things you hate and you can banish them to this room and the door will be locked.
And so you can kind of like get rid of all these things from the world.
You banish them into Room 101.
All right.
The concept is not exactly the same as it is in the book, but Anyway, it gives the guests on the show the chance to complain and rant about certain things that they hate and which they would like to be banished into Room 101.
And so Charlie invited me onto his podcast to do this, to do this concept.
So we did Room 101 and I was his guest.
And I talk about some things that annoy me.
And if you want to listen to it, you can check it out.
Actually, as I'm recording this, it hasn't been published yet.
I don't know when Charlie's going to publish that.
Maybe he's going to sit on it for some time.
I don't know what his plans are.
But you could check out the British English podcast.
You might see me on there in a recent episode, Room 101.
And what else?
I was on, is it called Learning English for Curious Minds?
Alistair Budge's podcast from Leonardo English.
He invited me on just this week, actually.
And we talked about the Olympics in Paris.
What it was like before, during and after the Olympic Games.
We talk about... God, what else?
We talked about the Paris Louvre robbery.
The thing I discussed earlier.
And some other interesting things.
It was a nice conversation about...
We've rambled on and on about all sorts of stuff.
So check it out.
English Learning for Curious Minds.
You should see me on there at some point.
Actually, I've just realized that it's the Leonardo English YouTube channel where you'll be able to check out that interview with me.
So Leonardo English is kind of like the website or home for of the podcast English Learning for Curious Minds.
All of it's done by Alistair Budge.
And he publishes his podcast episodes which are kind of like these factual mini documentaries about interesting topics.
And then he also on the YouTube channel, which is Leonardo English.
He occasionally publishes other things, including interviews with people.
And so it's Leonardo English on YouTube.
That's where you'll be able to watch that.
In any case, I'll share it on the page for this episode on my website.
So you can just go there, and that's where you'll find all of these episodes that I've been mentioning.
Link in the description.
Is that four things?
It is, isn't it?
Three learning English podcasts and one film review podcast.
So check it out.
Just in case you feel that you haven't had enough from me, you could listen to those episodes as well.
All right, you know what?
I think that's enough for this particular episode.
I'm still lying here on my back on the floor.
It's great the sun has actually moved.
I need to.
I need to sort of like shift down.
I need to.
I need to shuffle down to get my face in the sun again, because the sun has moved.
It has a habit of doing that, doesn't it?
I think it's technically the earth that moves.
Think everything moves, doesn't it?
Again, i'm not a scientist.
I'm pretty sure that everything, including the sun, is constantly rushing through space as the universe expands.
But certainly the earth is spinning, spinning around, which is why the sun changes position, and that's why i have to sort of shift myself down to get back in the sunlight again.
Ah, very nice.
I'm looking at reflections on the ceiling now As the sun bounces off my son's toys.
Yeah, the sun is bouncing off these.
He's got these sort of plastic magnets, which is actually a great toy.
These magnets, like these plastic squares and triangles that have these magnets on the edges, and you can connect them all together and you can build things.
He's like... He's about two and a half years old, but he builds these wonderful things.
He likes to build garages.
So he builds these structures and then he fills them with all his toy cars.
And there's one of them right here next to me.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to smash it down and put it all away.
He won't mind, though.
You might think, Luke, that's so cruel.
How can you destroy your son's creation, his garage that he's made?
He doesn't mind.
He loves to do it himself.
In fact he likes to.
He builds the garage and then he will be like Godzilla and just smash the whole thing down.
And he luckily is not too precious about his creation.
So he won't mind if I do this and tidy it all away.
He will come back later when I go and collect him.
I'll bring him back.
He'll come back later and pull open the drawer and just start again and build some other fantastic thing that looks like a cathedral.
We've bought loads of these magnets.
He had a small pack of them and there just weren't enough.
And so we bought another massive pack.
So he's got like over a hundred of these magnets and he just builds these huge things.
It's brilliant.
But I'm going to tidy it all away now.
I'm going to continue pottering around doing little odd jobs tidying up, cleaning up, doing spots of housework.
It's actually quite a therapeutic thing to do, I find.
Cleaning up, tidying up.
It's often an annoying chore, but I find it surprisingly therapeutic.
And when you've finished, it's all tidy and ordered, and that is very satisfying.
Thank you for listening to this episode, listeners.
I hope that you've enjoyed spending this time with me today. just dossing around in my flat.
I hope that it's been a pleasant experience.
And I guess you could check out the video that I've published on YouTube if you want to.
Again, I haven't actually done it yet, so I don't know what it's going to be, but I expect it will be me strolling around, climbing up the hill of Montmartre, probably going up and down some very steep steps and, And hopefully, seeing some interesting things and describing them and generally having a ramble on my feet.
So you can check that out.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you very much for being a podcast listener.
Have a lovely morning, afternoon, evening or night wherever you are in the world.
I hope that you have managed to.
I hope that you managed to take some time out from your busy life as well to do something like this.
Just lie down on the floor in the middle of your apartment and either record a podcast or perhaps just listen to a podcast.
Let me know what you've been doing while listening to this.
I love that.
I love to know what my listeners do as they listen to my podcast.
So you know what I've been doing while recording this.
I would love to know what you've been doing while listening to this.
So, if you did get to the end of the episode, just give me a little picture of what you've been up to while you've been listening to this.
What's been the environment around you?
Where have you been?
And what have you been doing?
That would be nice.
Okay, speak to you next time.
But for now, I will just say goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
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