How to talk about happiness in English with Lindsay from@AllEarsEnglishPodcast | EP 322

In this episode of Rock n’ Roll English, my guest is Lindsay, the co-host of All Ears English Podcast. We discuss their experiences with podcasting, English teaching, and their shared passion for connecting with people and enjoying life while doing it. The conversation explores the concepts of ‘type one’ and ‘type two’ happiness, which represent immediate joy and satisfaction from overcoming challenges, respectively. Lindsay talks about her podcast’s motto, ‘connection, not perfection’, and how it has shaped their approach to teaching English. Other topics include different cultural interpretations of common phrases, life in Colorado, and quirky new trends like beer spas.

00:00 Introduction and Welcoming the Guest
02:31 The Philosophy of ‘Connection, Not Perfection’
04:38 The Difference Between Learning Languages and Other Subjects
06:29 The Pleasure of Sleeping in a Freshly Made Bed
11:01 The Joy of Cycling and Type Two Happiness
17:18 The Impact of Sunlight on Happiness
22:25 Road Trip from Aspen to Vegas
22:46 Meeting Locals and Cowboys
23:43 The Joy of Long, Hot Baths
24:54 The Beer Spa Trend
27:55 The Friday Feeling and Sunday Scaries
30:52 Swimming in the Sea vs. Lake
38:34 The Joy of Waking Up Early
41:42 More about All Ears English Podcast
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So, hello, Lindsay, and welcome to Rock n’ Roll English. Hi, Martin. I’m excited to be here. Thank you. I am extremely excited to have you on. I have wanted to get you on the podcast for an extremely long time.

I, I think I maybe reached out a couple of times on social media, but I don’t think you saw the message because I’m not important enough for the message to go to your normal folder. I believe it went to your junk folder, so I was delighted when I finally was able to

Contact you. And you agreed to come on the podcast. Oh my gosh. No, I, I really enjoy collaborating with other podcasters in our industry in ESL. It’s always been a very collaborative podcast space, and that’s how we got started ten years ago. And that’s how I hope it continues to be.

So I’m happy to be here, Martin. Thanks. Absolutely. Yes, I agree. The whole collaborative, um, vibe to the industry. In fact, the way I contacted Lindsay is we found ourselves in the same WhatsApp group with some other podcasters. And I thought, Oh my God, Lindsay’s in the podcast in this group.

And, but then I thought, can I send her a message directly because there is the WhatsApp etiquette, isn’t there? And I thought, oh, I don’t know if I can do that. That’s maybe too direct, but luckily someone brought up the subject of collaborations. And I thought this is my moment.

I can ask her. Yeah, I mean, that’s how I felt when we first got started with our show back in 2013, Martin. That’s how I felt, right? We, we started just kind of finding who was in the space, who had big podcasts and we just reached out to them.

We were so nervous when we reached out, but then in the end, you know, we just, we had a great ep, we had great episodes. We had a good time getting to know people and over the years we’ve come back to them to collaborate again. And that’s just kind of how it works.

So. Absolutely fantastic. So you mentioned there you started your podcast in 2013. Now, I think this is unlikely, but if I do have any listeners that don’t know who you are and don’t know your podcast, please quickly tell us a bit about you and your podcast. Okay, Martin. So our podcast, podcast, right?

We do have three podcasts. I’ll just talk about in the first, I’ll talk about the bigger show. So All Ears English Podcast. We started it in 2013, as I said, and our listeners are global professionals, international professionals, students.

But the thing that makes our show, I think kind of unique is our, is our motto. And it’s not just a trademark, right? It is a value. And what it is, is connection, not perfection. We came up with this idea or this phrase in episode 50 or so.

We were just chatting, my co-host and I at the time, chatting through the topic on the microphone and it just came out and we said, boom, right, that’s it. That is what we believe matters when it comes to learning English or learning any Second language.

And so we’ve built our entire show around that idea that, of course, we’re going to try to be correct grammatically, vocabulary, but you can still connect and be incorrect, and connection is a higher, uh, thing to strive for than perfection and being correct. So, so far it’s working.

It’s keeping us going and we love it and it drives new listeners because they also believe that. That connection matters more than anything. So that is our show. And then we have two others, IELTS Energy and Business English. So it’s becoming a little network now. Okay.

So yeah, that’s what you mentioned there, connection, not perfection. So I’ve obviously listened to a few of your podcasts. And when I heard that it’s one of those things where you think, god, that is brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that? I don’t know. Because no, I absolutely love it.

And I absolutely 100 per cent agree with that. In fact, language is the reason. We learn other languages is to connect with people, especially now where you can use technology to maybe communicate the reason I think, well, I hope that AI, for example, doesn’t take

Our jobs is because people still want to connect with other people. So if you have technology that can do the job for you, that’s great, but people still want to connect on a human level. My wife, for example, is Italian. I connected with her in a foreign language. I have other Italian friends.

We have, uh, I’ve connected with in like working relationships, like friend relationships. So yeah, that is the ultimate is the reason why we learn languages. So absolutely brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we just kind of wanted to bypass everything that we knew our listeners had gone through

At, you know, at this point they’re adults, they’ve learned English through school coming all the way up into middle school. I taught English in Japan and I saw, I think it’s called Juku, the, the training schools, you know, preparing you and drilling English and just that intensity of making it an academic

Exercise is what’s done around the world, right? It becomes very, we’re separated from it. But we speak these words. This becomes, again, our way of relating to the world, building relationships, so to not have it be so separate. It’s not an academic exercise like math or science, learning facts. Absolutely.

So that’s the way we want to think about it. Yeah. No, in fact, I often use that exact same example. Like when you learn maths in school, it’s not the same as a language. But unfortunately, it seems in the education system, it still is taught like that, because

That’s the easiest way to teach something with the teacher at the front writing like, you know, complete this exercise with the missing word. That’s the easiest way. So that is the way that it still happens, but that’s a topic for another day, probably.

Um, so listening to your, a few of your podcasts, I always get a really positive vibe from them. So I thought, let’s talk about something positive, and again, inspired by one of your episodes, which was things that make you happy. I actually just saw the title of that episode.

So I did my usual, as I always say, five minutes research, I put into Google things that make you happy. Got a list. And I thought we could just go through this list, see if they make you happy.

Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, if they do, why, and just have a chat about them. Okay. I love that. Sounds good, Martin. Let’s do it. Okay. So number one. Sleeping in a freshly made bed. Does this make you happy? Of course. Who doesn’t love that? Right?

You change your sheets and then you, maybe you do it in the morning. You change those sheets in the morning and then you come back to bed. You remember that you changed them in the morning and you think, Oh, there’s just something. Yeah. There’s something great and refreshing about it.

It just feels clean. Right? How could that not make you happy? What about you? I totally agree, but I think there is a danger to this, okay? Too much cleaning or what? Well, yeah, so you take off the sheets, and you think, right, okay, I’m, I’m gonna put

Some clean ones on, and then you forget about that, and then you’re tired, and you go to bed, and you’ve realised you’ve forgotten to put the sheets on, and then at that point where you’re already tired going to bed, you have to find the energy to go Okay. Get the sheets.

That could happen. That’s a danger. But we could just put them on right away to prevent that. I mean, that would, that would be bad, right? And then you’re sleeping with no sheets. Sleeping on a mattress? Oh, no. So then I have to what, so now it’s like 11 o’clock at night.

I’m about to go to bed. I realised I haven’t put the sheets back. So then I have to go downstairs. I have to find the clean sheets and then I have to make my bed at 11 o’clock at night, which is not what I wanted to do. So I’m losing that great feeling.

Yes, of course. The intelligent thing would be to do it immediately, but unfortunately, nothing in my life is organized, including changing the sheets on the bed. Oh, do you do a lot of housework at home, Martin? Are you in charge of the, you know, laundry?

What’s your, what are your chores at home that you’re in charge of? My main one, I would say, certainly thing that really is mine, that I have made my own, is doing the washing up. Okay, that’s my main one. And then I help out with a bit of everything here.

Yeah, of course, like, and well, Um, in American English, you say the laundry… Yeah, I was gonna ask you washing up. So, I don’t know exactly what that is. Oh, really? This is a new one for me. Washing up. No, we say wash up.

Maybe parents would say that to their kid if they’ve been outside playing, go wash up for dinner. And that means wash your hands, but I don’t know what washing up means. Is it laundry or dishes? Washing the dishes? I don’t, okay, dishes. Got it. Good. This is a new thing for me.

Cause I, I was actually about to say, you say laundry and. We say the washing. So I do help with the washing and, but yeah, that I’d never thought about this. The difference between the washing clothes and the washing up. Fascinating.

Like dishes, as you would say, um, and the doing the washing up is actually the only moment of the day where I get to watch something that I want to watch like on Netflix or something. And this involves putting my phone just above the sink, try not to get it wet.

I know, there’s a real danger there. Go back for a new phone. Um, having my AirPods in and listening to something or watching a video on YouTube or Netflix. So yeah. That’s really interesting just for, for your listeners listening today, washing versus washing up. And we say laundry and washing the dishes.

So it’s quite different. So you actually say washing the dishes and not doing the dishes. You can say, yeah, wash the dishes, do the dishes. You could do either. You could say either. Uh, or load the, load the washing machine. Or the dish, sorry, the dishwasher. And then for laundry…

If you’re rich enough to have a dishwasher for, unfortunately, poor people like me, we, we don’t, but I actually don’t, honestly, I do not want one. My wife keeps telling me we need one, but I, as I told you, it’s the only moment of the day when I can.

Watch something on YouTube or a documentary about football, something like that. And I don’t feel bad about it. Cause if I were just sitting on the couch, I would feel bad about it, but because I’m doing something, I kind of think, well, I love it. I’m, I deserve this.

Of course, whatever lets you steal those few moments of happiness, right? I mean, that’s happiness right there. A little moment for yourself. I love it. Absolutely. Watching things on a very small screen, sometimes if there’s an actual match on, I do have to

Really sort of look closely because I can’t really see, but it, it’s, it’s happiness for me. Um, okay. So another one. This. I think maybe, could possibly be a no, I’m not sure. Cycling, does it make you happy? Yeah. So riding a bike, cycling. Yeah.

So this is, I’ll bring up a quick topic here. This is what I would call so—just biking in itself, like going around town. Yeah, there’s some happiness there. It’s pleasant. It’s nice. We just were in Portugal, and so we did a little bike tour of one La Fama neighbourhood,

A little neighbourhood going around, but uh, my partner and I talk about type two happiness, which is something we’ve labelled type two happiness is so type one happiness in my mind is superficial. Like you get the gratification immediately, right? Like you’re in the sun. It feels great. Um, you’re at the beach.

It’s immediately happy, right? Versus type two happiness where you set yourself a goal. Often, for me, it involves physical activity. Like in 2010 I hiked the Camino de Santiago. Have you heard of that? It’s in Northern Spain. I would like to say yes to pretend I’m an intelligent person and cultured person, but

Unfortunately the answer is no. okay. It’s all right. It’s, it’s this 500 mile path. You go from St. Jean Pied de Port in France all the way walking to, uh, Santiago de Compostela in Spain. And it takes six weeks, and this is what I call type two happiness. You can cycle it, too.

Any kind of physical activity where you set yourself kind of a, whether it’s a day of a high, you’re going to do like a series of three mountains, or you’re going to do a month-long hike, any kind of often physical activity that’s quite hard and you kind of hate it

In the middle of it. But at the end, there’s a certain happiness that you don’t get from the more superficial. Let me just lay at the beach all day. That kind of happiness is harder to go after, but I try to make sure I get my type two happiness as well.

So cycling, yes. If I’m doing something big like that, yeah. I like that a lot. So, a few things. Not just to say this to try it and now pretend like I am a cultured person, but I have heard of that. Okay.

That Saint, because I know someone that when you said the 500 miles, I thought, right. Okay. Yeah. So I do know, I know someone that’s done it. I can’t say I know it so well. Um, and I really like this idea of how you mentioned you have to suffer.

Like you have to almost suffer at some point to get the happiness. Not everyone likes that, right? Like it’s not for everyone, but it’s for a certain personality type for sure. I, I really liked that. It actually reminded me of when you finish a book, you know, like, and you’re going through

The book, and you get into the middle, and it’s like, Oh, this is pretty boring now. And you think, Oh, shall I, shall I ditch it? Shall I get rid of it? But you continue it. And then when you get to the end, you do get that happiness feeling again.

So that would be tier-two happiness. Type two. I call it type two. You can call it tier two. That’s okay, too. No, sorry. I haven’t, I hadn’t thought about this before, but I, I like this. So you and your partner, you just gave it this name.

You discussed this yourself and gave type one, type two? Because we, well, we also, also is a product of where we, where we live. We live in Colorado, and we, our state is known for crazy, crazy like ultra-marathoners, people that do really big physical things, skiers outside. I’m not an ultra-marathoner.

I’m not even a marathoner. I don’t run. I don’t really like running, but I hike a lot. I like physical activity. Um, and so it’s kind of a product of where, where we live right now. So, but yeah, you can do this anywhere in the world, obviously, um, but this idea that

This is going to require, it’s going to be a little bit of a project. There is going to be a dip, as you said, right? There’s going to be a dip where you say to yourself, maybe I should quit. Is it, you know, do I really care?

Like, and then you reach down into yourself, and if you decide not to quit the happiness on the other end, I think it’s so much more than what you would have otherwise. So. I think that is absolutely true, 100%; I love that, the fact that you have to suffer, it’s

Not happiness unless you’ve suffered, um, fantastic, um, that is kind of why I think I love cycling and it does make me happy because I kind of always do suffer a bit when cycling. And then once you actually get there, in fact, just this morning for the very first time,

I took my toddler to nursery, which I believe is you call kindergarten. Yes, kindergarten. Mm. So that’s like the school before, school, right before, mm-hmm, right before, Right. Okay. So I took her to kindergarten or nursery as, as, we say, and I got this, um, seat for her

To sit on, but it actually goes on the front of the bike instead of behind. Cause if she’s behind, she’s just looking at my backside, which I don’t think anyone wants to do. Whilst when she’s at the front, she can see.

And as we were going up the hill, I’ve been quite inactive since the birth of my second child, and I was really suffering. But, then, once we got there. I was like. Yes, we did it. My legs are hurting. I didn’t go 500 miles. I went about two miles.

Um, but again, the satisfaction and I, I’ve always said this, I think cycling is one of those things where if you tell people that you cycle to work, for example, people immediately just think this person is a good person because you cycle, they’re like, they’re doing their bit for the environment.

They’re just, they’re just a, a good person. And in fact, this morning, when I took my daughter to nursery, I got two random hellos from people. I don’t know. Just the people saw me. They’re just like he’s cycling with his daughter. He must be a good person. I’m going to say hello.

Normally, strangers don’t say hello. Right, right, right, right. Or if you’re in a car, it’s not, it’s just, you’re not interacting with the world as much, right? Oh, that’s nice. I love that. Yeah. That sounds like type-two happiness. Definitely type two happiness.

So actually, you almost did touch upon this part, um, in one of your answers here. But feeling the sun on your face. Okay. Is this something that makes you happy? Because I think, again, this is split. Some people do, some people don’t. Feeling the sun on your face. Do you like it?

Does it make you happy? Oh, my god. I can attest to this that this I feel like there you can find data I don’t have it at my fingertips right now, but I moved about three years ago from Boston, which gets much

Less sunshine, to Colorado, which gets 300-something days of Sun a year. So people think about Colorado, and they think, oh god, cold snow, actually, what happens is we get intense snow storms, but then the next day, the sun comes out, melts it all.

And you can sit outside in a t-shirt 70 degrees in the winter, many times in the sun because the sun is so intense here. So more skin cancer here. Yes, but happier people, I think. Right. Um, I really think people are happy here, and I, I actually legitimately think sun has

An amount of sunlight that your city gets has something to do with happiness levels. I mean, of course, there, we know, I mean, I study meditation, right? Um, I study Buddhism and meditation, and you can. Happiness is available for anyone at any time. It’s more available than we think it is.

However, I think it helps having more sunshine. Kind of that superficial, and it just kind of changes your view on the day, I think. So yeah. I, again, I am with you 100 per cent and I, so I’m obviously from England, which, as I

Think most people know, is not the sunniest place in the world, but I lived for eight years. I lived in Sicily, where I met my wife. And obviously, Sicily is very, very sunny. And we moved back to the UK. And I still ask myself every day, was this a good decision?

Because I, I think I was just happier with some sunshine. Because just having that, but the strange thing is so I mentioned, for me, it’s it’s a no-brainer. This sun on your face is a good thing. But, for many Sicilian people, my wife included, they say about how it’s annoying.

They say they they don’t like so, for example, How annoying in what way? I’m curious. So, they, it’s just like having, so if we were going out for lunch, for example, in like January, where maybe it’s not really hot because obviously in July if you’ve got

This, if it’s one, 1 pm, you’re out for lunch, and you’ve got the sun in your face, that’s not good because it’s extremely hot. Oh, yeah. but if it’s January and it’s a nice sunny day, and we were going out for lunch, I would say, let’s get a table under the sun.

And my wife would say, no, because the sun annoys me in my face. So let’s get a table in the shade. And I couldn’t get, I could not get my head around it. Could not get my head around it. That’s fascinating. Yeah.

I mean, I don’t know what I, when I lived in Japan, I noticed a lot of women carried umbrellas, sun umbrellas, because there’s, I mean, there is, there’s concern about sun, you know, skin cancer and things like that. For sure. Not wanting to get sun.

And that’s a whole other question about, you know, history and status and all these things around getting sun on your face. Um, but yeah, I could see that, you know, it’s whatever we’re used to is kind of what we take for granted.

We want to kind of get away from and have something different. Isn’t that interesting? Absolutely. Yes. Um, and one thing you mentioned there, so you’re from Colorado because I’ve actually been there. I went to Aspen. That’s in Colorado, isn’t it? That is, that is in Colorado. Yes. Just check in there?

How did you like it there? Oh, I loved it. I obviously went skiing, luckily because Aspen is quite an expensive place, but a friend was working there Yes. He, he basically hooked us up with, um, so we stayed at his house and we got like ski passes for like almost nothing. And.

So what you mentioned there, I remember going skiing all day and like, so obviously you’re exercising and then at the end, well, at the end, maybe sort of like 2 p.m. Because we’d been skiing maybe from like 8 a.m., we would… Yeah. exactly. We would have a sit down, have a beer.

And I remember being in a t-shirt, like you said, because it was nice and sunny, even though there’s snow everywhere, nice and sunny having that beer, and that was type two happiness. That was unbelievable. You know, unbelievable. skiing all day, and you’re in pain, and it’s the best. Yes. Yeah, that is.

And Aspen is a special place. Aspen is an interesting place to people-watch because you do get a lot of people coming from California, from Silicon Valley. It is just a little survey of humanity to sit down at a bar in Aspen and watch what’s going on around you. It’s fascinating. Yeah.

I mean, this was, I think, in 2009. So, obviously quite a while ago now. But of trips I’ve had in my life, that was right up there. And then, we hired a car and drove from Aspen to Vegas. So Oh, wow. That was a nice trip. Fun. Absolutely.

Although I must admit Vegas I wasn’t particularly fond of but the you Nah. One of the best parts was actually finding our way there and stopping at some random towns and Yeah. chatting with the locals as soon as we walked in people like, Oh my God, you’re from England.

Um, it, it was brilliant. I had some absolutely great chats. We met a cowboy once. I remember he looked like an actual cowboy. He had a hat. Yeah. Yeah. You meet a lot of them out in the West. Yeah. American West. Mm I thought it was just like a TV thing.

I didn’t realise cowboys actually exist. Yeah. No, it’s true. You can, if you spend time in the American West, you will find that you do find people wearing those hats and the boots and everything, um, can sit down and chat with them and just try to get their worldview.

That’s another source of happiness is just I think, trying to get a glimpse into someone else’s worldview can create happiness, right? Because it creates perspective. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And having these chats with these people. Exactly. That was an absolutely brilliant trip. Um, so, okay, on to the next one.

Having a long, hot bath. Does this maybe this would be type one happiness, but is this happiness for you? Does it make you happy? Sure. I mean, it’s been a while since I’ve had a long, hot bath, I guess, but yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say no. You know what I mean?

Going to a spa or something like that. Um, yeah. What about you? I definitely know does not make me happy. I, I’m not sure what it is. I think I feel pressured. I feel like I’m under pressure to be happy to enjoy it. Yeah. And I, and I don’t feel relaxed at all.

And I kind of sit there because I mean, it like you, it’s, it’s been a long time since I tried this, but you kind of sit there and you just kind of think. Now, what do I do? When does the happiness come?

Yeah, you’re sitting there, okay, it was like you get in, it’s nice. And then after, And then you’re all pruney when you get out. Yeah, exactly. After like 20 seconds, I’m thinking, Yeah. like, should I get my phone and just sort of, like respond to some messages?

Like, well, what do I do now? Yeah. And then you’re kind of like warm and then like your temperature, body regulation is all off. There’s a, uh, a new trend going on here in Denver. You know that breweries are a big deal. I don’t know if you know that in the US.

Craft beer, breweries, um, and Colorado is one of the biggest places for that. So now, a big trend going on is a beer spa. The beer spa. And what that means is literally, you are sitting in beer. Wow. Yes. And so they have these facilities, expensive, like very yuppie.

Um, but they have, and they say, I mean, I don’t, I think it’s a lot of BS, I think, but they say that the, you know, the yeast and everything really creates and, and whatever’s in the beer creates extra relaxation properties. We did it.

And I was like, I don’t, I don’t get it. I don’t get it. Um. So that’s a thing. Wow. I did not know that that was a thing. Yeah. I’ll send you a link. It’s interesting. My immediate reaction is, you know, I, I like beer. I like drinking beer.

Like I told you, you go skiing in Aspen have a beer that amazing. But I’m not sure I would want to be bathe in to bathe in beer. That would be, It’s so ridiculous when I say it, but it’s, it is people like this. It’s a trend right now. I mean, what else?

What’s next? Right. I don’t know. But no one’s like trying to drink it, are they? No, no, not, not, not what you’re bathing in. No, no, no. You may be drinking a beer on the side, right? Like in the tub or something, but yeah, it’s strange.

It’s not my, it’s not my cup of tea. You just made me think of, like here in, in the UK, you do get those, we describe them as lads, like typical sort of displaying masculine features, let’s say stereotypical masculine features of like, yeah, I love beer and all of this.

And I remember once specifically, I was at a music festival and the, like, the pump or whatever it’s called for the beer kind of exploded and was going everywhere. And then I just remember seeing a couple of men run over and like put their mouths under it. Oh, my gosh.

As if they were, as if it was actually going into their mouth and they were just getting soaked in beer because they wanted to demonstrate how much they love beer and, and I was just thinking, That’s crazy. don’t get it. I do not get it. I mean, if that’s happiness for them, okay.

Right, okay, yeah. You know. So I was thinking maybe that’s the same for this because people just say, Oh, I love beer so much, so I want to bathe in it because that’s how much I love it. I guess.

But I don’t know, because I know people who have gone who don’t really like beer, like they don’t want to drink beer. They just want it. Maybe it’s something about the properties of the beer. Like, soaking in it is supposed to be good for your skin, but they say that for a lot

Of things, right? I don’t know if I believe it, right? These days, you find studies about everything, don’t you? yeah, sure, sure. So, So on to the next one. That Friday feeling. Number one, do you get the Friday feeling these days? And number two, is it something that makes you happy?

Yeah, I mean, of course, yeah, at a basic level, Fridays are nice. I can roll into the weekend. Just take the pressure off. I like to go to the movies on Friday night because I don’t want to socialise. I’m tired by that time, right?

Just go to the movies, order dinner at the movie, but honestly, you know, since I’ve been working in my own business, I actually love what I do. So, have you heard the term the Sunday scaries? I haven’t. Yeah, so this idea, yeah, this idea of on Sunday night, you realise the weekend’s over,

And you start to get nervous about what’s coming. I don’t get that anymore. And so When I was in school, I was so excited about Fridays. I was so happy to be out of school. But now it’s kind of like, great, week’s over, cool; I can relax. But I don’t dread coming back.

So I think some of the emphasis is taken off of Fridays because I don’t, I like what I do all day, during the week, you know. I, again, I can relate to that absolutely 100 per cent because it’s the same for me now. I work for myself.

It takes away from the Friday feeling, and I love what I do like you do, and I often find myself doing things at the weekend anyway. If I’ve got some time on a Saturday morning or something, I’ll think, right, okay, I’ll do this because it’s something I actually enjoy doing.

But, when I worked before I started teaching English and things, I worked at an investment bank in London and really did not enjoy it, but I really had that Friday feeling I remember like running down the stairs on a Friday thinking.

It was an age thing as well because I was like 22, 23, 24. But running down with that Friday feeling thinking, wow, this is going to be big. Okay, yeah. But like you said, having that, how did you call it Sunday scares? Sunday Scaries.

We talk about this in All Ears English sometimes—the Sunday Scaries. Oh, Yeah. The, I’ve suffered so much from the Sunday scaries. So, in fact, in, in the UK there’s normally a football match on at 4:00 PM that finishes at six, more or less.

And when that football match finished, I would just be thinking, oh no, it’s time to prepare myself for the week. Oh, is that more when at the investment bank that Sunday Scaries came? Yeah. Now, now I don’t have it at all. Zero.

So it sounds like the Friday feeling is more about your job, more about what happens during the week than anything, right? How do you feel about what you’re doing all week? I think we’ve discovered something here. Interesting. We have discovered something big because, yes, I totally agree. It certainly, that’s my experience.

Anyway, I’m not sure about other people. Um, okay. So how about this swimming in the sea? Slash lake. Is that something that makes you happy? Yeah. I love, I am fascinated by the ocean, especially the ocean. I’d rather swim in the ocean than a lake. Lakes are fine.

You know, my brother lives on a lake, spends a lot of time on a lake, whatever. It’s okay. But the ocean is something so incredibly mysterious and so powerful. And you feel it sometimes and you think, Oh my gosh, you feel small, right?

One of those things that snaps you into where you should be understanding that you’re such a tiny piece of the universe. Not to be all woo-woo or anything, but it’s true. Again, I totally agree with you.

And so I’m, I’m a bit torn on this because I do love it, but I cannot get rid of the fear because I’m generally scared of most things that something is going to eat me like a shark or my biggest fear. Because when I lived in Sicily.

I lived like 500 meters from the beach. So I would go there most days during summer. I would literally go there every day, like in the morning, before I started my day, I say, have a swim. It was more just kind of a splash because there often were jellyfish.

And when I saw one of those things, my god, Scary. I, I once, I convinced my wife to come with me because I used to go, certainly in summer at like 6:30 in the morning, convinced her we were swimming, it was nice, and she said

There’s a jellyfish, and I just kind of left her, left her to die, and luckily she still agreed to marry me, but um, it looked like it was on the rocks for a minute. Wasn’t looking good.

No, because my natural reaction was, Oh my god, I need to save myself, not save my wife. Yeah, I was stung by a jellyfish when I was a kid, actually. wow. So the next question, the natural question which everyone asks when you talk about getting

Stung by a jellyfish, made famous by an episode of Friends. what is it? Did you, uh, I’m not sure if other people have heard this, I think they have, is apparently the way to get rid of the sting is to pee on yourself. Yeah, you’re on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I had a feel like that was what you’re gonna say, . I dunno. I don’t know. I was so young. I think what happened was I was at like a public beach. It wasn’t a box jellyfish or anything like that. Right. Those are deadly, more deadly. This is a Connecticut, New York jellyfish.

So I think a, a more tame kind of jellyfish, but I saw it come up to me. Um, I saw it sting me, and then I just remember screaming, coming into the shore. I think there was probably like a medical office at the beach, you know, at the administration office or something.

And I, I don’t think they put urine on me. I don’t know, really, but I don’t remember having something poured on me. I was so young. I don’t know. Right. Okay. But yeah, so And that that hasn’t sort of scared you, hasn’t scarred you for,

I don’t, I don’t do a ton of swimming in the ocean. It’s more I like to hang out around the ocean. I mean, I will go in the ocean. I’ve tried surfing a couple of times, which also feels like a very all-encompassing, like

You leave it all, you have to be so present because it’s so powerful the forces that you’re working with the waves the ocean. That’s why I love it. But I’m not someone that goes and swims laps in the ocean all the time. I mean, I live in Colorado, so obviously, not now.

My parents live on the coast in on the East Coast and I love just like sitting by the rocks and smelling the ocean. I love the things around the ocean, not so much like literally doing laps on a daily basis. Oh, I totally agree with you.

But I think when you do get in, and you swim a lot, when the few times I have done it, I think we go back to our, or your type two happiness again, because then when you do come out, and you’re kind of a bit out of breath, maybe.

Then it really is when you, really is fantastic. But if you, if you’re sitting on the beach, drinking a beer, just taking it in, that is great as well, but definitely type Type one. Yeah. But, but that’s, fact that, yeah, go ahead.

I was going to say that’s normally what I go for the type one. Right. Type one. Just, just to your point about the type two, when you go for a swim, um, just the fact that the saltiness, I don’t know, it’s something that fully takes over your body.

You come out with salt on your body. You’ve been like, you’ve really been in it in a way that you don’t experience that at a pool or a lake. I would much rather swim in the ocean than a lake or a pool. Let’s say that much.

I’m not a fan of pools and lakes. I feel very neutral about. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s again, I’m a bit torn because, yeah, I agree. It’s better to swim in the ocean. Yeah. In the pool, I don’t have to worry about jellyfish. And that’s a definite Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For the pool.

We’re having an issue on Cape Cod. I don’t know if you know what Cape Cod is. It’s a, it’s a particular vacation spot in Massachusetts, uh, like a lot of Bostonians will go there. Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Cape Cod. We’re having a major great white shark, um, problem there right now.

Uh, and so I used to vacation there as a kid, and there weren’t as many great white sharks at that time, but now they’re starting to repopulate. Probably something having to do with climate change. Um, and so they’re really like, they’re having to ramp up safety there for the summer vacationers. It’s crazy.

I would not fancy that when I was in Thailand, we went on a boat trip, and then they said, now you can jump in the water if you want. So I stood up. Okay. But they said, if you have like a cut, maybe avoid it because sometimes there are sharks. Oh my gosh.

I will sit down again. Thanks. And take my type one happiness. I just drink my beer on the boat. Yeah. Um, but what you mentioned, what you mentioned about when you’re in the sea and you’ve got the salt on you, et cetera. When I go to the beach, I love that.

I love to come back covered in sand. Like I know sand annoys lots of people. I absolutely love it. And when I lived in Sicily, I said it was like 500 meters from the beach. But when I used to cycle it, the way back was very uphill, very uphill.

So I would then cycle back from the beach, really dirty, covered in sand salt, sweating. And then you get home, and then you have that shower and then, oh, because again, I’ve suffered, and then you, and then you feel really clean and that. I think I can call that type two happiness.

Yeah, you’ve got, you’ve just been swimming laps, and then you bike uphill. That sounds like type-two happiness. Yeah, I’m not sure how many laps I would swim. I would kind of splash around for a bit. Sometimes I did swim. Swim laps in I would swim laps.

Before, I actually did this because I would never go out too far. I would just sort of, sort of parallel to the coast kind of thing and just sort of go like across. And before, because I used to get there in the morning and there’s no one there, I would

Sort of look around for any jellyfish. I would walk up and down and think, okay, it’s safe. And then start going up and down and doing my laps. But constantly in the back of my mind, I could never fully relax because I was thinking I get that. I get that.

Just what if, um, but there we go. Okay. So let’s go to the last one. Let’s have a look on my list. Try to make it a good one. Okay. You’re asleep. You wake up. And you think, Oh, like, what’s the time? Maybe it’s nearly time to get up.

So I might just wake up anyway. And then you realise you’ve still got like five more hours until you can, until it’s time to get up. So you go back to sleep. Does that bring you happiness? It does. I’d say less so than other, other things.

Um, more, I would rather have it be something like, oh, you’re asleep. You wake up at 6:00 A.M., but then you realise it’s a Saturday, and you can sleep in a little later. But I’m not a huge, like, sleep until noon-person.

On Saturdays, I get up around eight, maybe sleep an extra hour and a half. I don’t do a whole lot of like sleeping late. Uh, so yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say that I would get the maximum happiness from that, from that waking up and realising I have more time. What about you?

It’s something, so again, when I was doing a job that I really didn’t like, and I had to travel, I had to take the train into work every day, so I had to wake up early, and

I remember, especially in the winter months, if it was cold, and you wake up, and you just sort of like touch your phone to see what time it is, and then I realised I still had a few more hours, that, that really would be a huge moment, almost sort of like clenching

My fists, like, yes, um, That’s similar to the Sunday Scaries then. It’s more about what you do during the week and during the day. I think so, but I’ve sort of now gone back to that because, as I mentioned, I have two

Young children, so I often don’t get much sleep, so, if I wake up, or if one of the children wake up, and I look at the time, if I think, okay, I do have a few more hours here then, because every minute counts when you have two very young children, so I’ve

Kind of gone back to that of trying to sleep every moment I can. Before I had this like really good sleep routine, I would always be in bed by a certain time. I would wake up early, set my alarm, run out of bed basically, and either cycle to the

Beach or go to the gym. Whilst these days it’s just… Everything’s changed, right? Sleep until they wake me up, and then that’s it. Really, I don’t even set an alarm anymore. Oh my gosh. I know everything changes when you become a parent. I’m sure. Everything changes.

Yeah, as we mentioned in our pre-podcast chat, that’s the great thing about being an aunt or an uncle. You don’t, you don’t have this. You can just, you can just totally relax. Um, so. Lindsay, it’s been amazing talking to you about happiness and I, I’m going to start

Telling everyone the difference between type one and type two happiness now, which I absolutely love you. You’re good at finding names because your connection, not perfection, is amazing. That’s right. And now you’ve, you’ve this type one, type two happiness. I absolutely love.

Um, so I will include links to everything in the show notes anyway, but just in case if anyone is too lazy to go and check the show notes. And if anyone doesn’t know who you are, which I think is unlikely, but anyway, where can people find out more about you? Sure.

So they can go ahead and just open their search bar wherever they’re listening to this podcast. If they already love podcasts, they can add our show to their listening queue. So just open your search bar right now and type in All Ears English, and you will see three shows come up.

See the yellow, but our main show is the first one to subscribe to hit that follow button, and we publish on All Ears English four days a week. So we’ve got some good stuff coming up in January, February. So join us. Wow. And can I ask what number you are on?

What episode number you got to? Oh, geez. We’ve lost count. No, we haven’t it is, it is around 2000. I wanna say, let me see. It’s, it’s in the two, like 20. Okay. Yeah. 2109 is more or less where we’re at. 2110, 2110. It’s nuts. And, and being going since 2013.

So, I just want to publicly say this. I’ll say this in the intro and outro, but that is a huge achievement as someone that knows. The difficulties of maintaining a podcast, the work that goes into it to do that more than 2,000 times.

I’m on 300, something like that, but to do that 2,000 times is an absolutely enormous achievement. So, a big well done to you and everyone that works with you because as well, like I said, I’ve listened to quite a few podcasts. I always just get a really good vibe from the podcast.

So, um, I’ll tell everyone again to go and check out All Ears English. Um. So, thanks so much for your time, Lindsay. It’s been fantastic having you on, and we hope to see or hear from you again soon. Thank you, Martin. I really enjoyed chatting with you today. Thank you so much.

Thanks a lot. Take care. Bye bye. Bye.