Hey everyone and welcome back to the understandable English podcast.
I'm Oliver and it has been a long time since I have made one of these podcasts.
So today I want to update you and tell you about certain topics that have happened this year and what is going to happen for the future of this podcast.
To start with my friends, i want to apologize, to say sorry For not making a podcast episode for so long.
I really, really wanted to make more podcasts over many months.
And I know that last year I said I would make a podcast every week.
But so much changed in my life during the last year.
Some good things and some bad.
But mostly good things.
Last night I was very surprised.
I decided to check the podcast for the first time in many, many months.
And, to my surprise, I saw that we had many listeners over the past year when I wasn't making any new episodes for you guys.
And these listeners are from lots of different countries.
I can see that so many of you are from Vietnam, Germany, Spain, France, Japan.
There are so many countries. over 88 countries which is absolutely crazy to me.
After seeing this, I feel so much more motivated to make good podcasts for you guys.
I really want to help you improve and learn English as effectively, as good as possible.
I understand how hard it is to learn another language, especially with listening and understanding, because everyone speaks so fast and all of the words join together.
So I know that these podcasts help so so many of you to understand words and begin to improve your listening and understanding.
So I am back and I really hope to make one or two episodes of this podcast every week for you.
Today I just want to give you a small update on where I am and what I am doing.
Right now I still live in Northern Ireland in the UK, just outside of a very small city called Belfast.
During the past year I got a new job.
I started a new job. with a company in the sector of sales.
So selling things.
It is business to business sales.
So I go to other businesses and I sell our products.
As part of this job I have to travel a lot.
I travel all around the UK and Ireland.
And I have even had some trips to the Netherlands, Scotland and lots of different places in the UK.
Sometimes this can be very tiring.
I have to spend lots and lots of time driving my car.
And I don't really like driving so much if I am honest.
It is okay for short journeys but often I have to drive sometimes for 6 or even 7 hours every day.
This is one of the reasons I have been so so busy in the last year.
But the other reason is my girlfriend came to the UK.
So, as many of you long-term listeners already know, I have a girlfriend from Russia.
I used to live in Moscow and teach English there, in Russia.
And there I met my girlfriend.
But after the war started I had to move back to the UK due to a number of circumstances and problems.
It was a very difficult time.
I missed my girlfriend very much.
But we organized and went on some trips together to Turkey and also to Italy.
But finally in September, she came to the UK for four months.
And during the last four months, we spent so much time together.
We traveled around the UK and Ireland. and had so much fun seeing and doing lots of things.
We even met my whole family and she got to know my family, my parents and my grandparents very well.
And I have some very good news for you guys.
About one month ago, we got engaged.
So I proposed to her.
I asked her to become my wife.
And in about one year's time, we will get married.
We will become husband and wife.
And I am so happy about this.
Unfortunately, yesterday she had to return home to Moscow to get another visa.
We have had to apply for a fiancé visa.
A fiancé is someone who you will marry.
So someone that you are getting married to you have already asked them to marry you and to get this visa.
It can take quite a long time around five to six months at the moment, so we are having to apply for this visa.
We need to apply for this visa and wait, But once we get it, she will be able to live here in the UK with me and we can get married and continue our life here.
So I'm very excited, but also very sad that she had to go home.
But I am very excited and happy about the future.
And that's why I am now focusing and motivating myself to get back to making these podcasts for you and focusing on other projects.
I really hope that you're all well and I really hope that you will continue to watch and or listen to these podcasts.
I absolutely love making them and talking to you guys and helping.
Finally in today's short episode I would like to tell you about one new thing that I will start.
To help support me with this podcast to make more episodes I have a new premium subscription.
It isn't something you need, but if you would like to support this podcast and hear more content, you can subscribe to it.
It is around $1 per month.
And for that you will get extra episodes, longer episodes and really more bonus content, more personal content about me.
If you're interested in that and you would like to support the podcast, you can check it out in the link in the description of this podcast episode.
Thank you very much for listening.
I missed doing this so much and I look forward to making more and more of these episodes going forward.
I will speak to you all soon.
Have a wonderful, fantastic day wherever you are in the world.
Bye-bye.
