#271 Mark, Steve & Annie – Summer Holidays

Mark: Hello and welcome to another installment of the EnglishLingQ Podcast. Mark here with Steve… Steve: …and Annie. Mark: And a special guest today; Annie has joined us.

Steve: Say something, Annie.

Annie: Hello.

Steve: Very good.

Mark: Annie is my daughter and she's a very keen EnglishLingQ participant. Steve: And she's sitting on a Swiss Medicine Ball and making noise. Annie: Okay.

Mark: But, maybe we thought Annie could tell us a little bit about your summer. What have you been doing this summer?

Annie: Um, I went to Kelowna at the start for Kyle's hockey camp. Mark: Well, Kyle was at a hockey camp and we stayed at the lake. So, that was kind of nice, even though the lake was a little bit cool.

Annie: Yeah, it was freezing.

Steve: Was the lake cool?

Annie: It was freezing.

Steve: What was the temperature outside? I thought it was warm up there.

Annie: Yeah, it was really hot. I don't know. The lake was cold, though.

Mark: The lake wasn't freezing. Annie: Yeah it was.

Mark: The lake was cooler than usual, because the month of June here wasn't very warm. Steve: Oh, I see.

Mark: So the water wasn't…I mean, even more so than the ocean here, as the temperature heats up the water it's a more significant change in the water temperature. But even over the week that we were there, it was hot every day and the lake got warmer every day we were there, so. I mean it was nice to me.

Steve: Warmer than the ocean here?

Mark: Certainly by the time we left.

Steve: So, Kylie went to hockey school, Annie, and you, Olivia and your friends swam in the lake?

Annie: Yeah.

Well, my friend and her mom were there too. Because her mom had like a work thing there and so she came too. The pool was really warm, though.

Steve: What about work thing? What do you mean by work thing?

Annie: Like she had a meeting or something.

Steve: Aha.

Annie: But the pool was really warm, but it was really shallow. It was like four and a half feet at the deepest, so.

Steve: The pool was?

Annie: Yeah.

Steve: That's not very good. Annie: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. Did you go on hikes? Or, what other things did you do up there?

Annie: No.

Well… Mark: Ah, we played tennis a few times. We went to the beech.

Annie: What did we do? Not much.

Mark: I went on some nice bike rides around the lake. There was a pool in our complex where you swam.

Mark: Hung out...Nothing too exciting.

Annie: Yeah, nothing. Yeah.

Steve: So that was one holiday, but then you also went here nearby on a recent trip.

Annie: Yeah, Hernando.

Steve: Yeah.

Annie: Yeah.

That was a few weeks ago. Um, daddy didn't come because he had to have work, so it was just me, mom, Kyle, Livia and Gordie. He loved it.

Steve: Gordie the dog? Yeah.

Annie: Yeah.

And it's beside Savary Island and it's called Hernando Island. And we built big forts on the rocks that we could stand in and they were really big so we could stand.

Steve: And you built forts out of what?

Annie: Wood. Like drift wood… Steve: Oh, really? Annie: Yeah.

Steve: Oh, okay.

Annie: …that we found on the beach.

Steve: Aha.

And so you built forts. Just one or several forts?

Annie: Um, well, one big one and then Kyle and his friend built like another small one and then…yeah, there were a few, but ours was like the biggest one.

Steve: And did you hide in the forts so other people didn't know where you were? Annie: Um, not really. We ate snacks in them.

Steve: Aha.

Mark: Yeah, though, there's these big rocks on the beach and there's these sort of nooks in them. There's lots of driftwood on the beach, so they can pile up all the driftwood and use a few longer pieces for cross pieces and lots of… Annie: Except I did pretty much the whole thing, because Michael, he was…he's really…he didn't do anything. He's too lazy. He just sat up there reading the whole time.

Mark: Michael is one of the kids you were up there with.

Annie: Yeah.

Mark: But I wouldn't want to be underneath one of those four roofs if they fell in. Steve: No.

Mark: A lot of wood sort of resting on you.

Annie: No.

We stood on it.

Mark: Oh, really?

Annie: Yeah.

Mark: On the roof?

Annie: Yeah.

They were pretty stable.

Mark: Oh.

Steve: Did you get a building permit?

Mark: They don't look that stable. There's no nails. Nail-free structure.

Annie: No.

Steve: So you were there and then, more recently, you were at Hornby Island.

Annie: Well, we went to Robert's Creek, Hornby and also Nevin's. But I went to Sakinaw, too. But my family didn't, only me. Steve: Sakinaw, what was that?

Annie: Sakinaw Lake.

Steve: Aha.

You went with some friends?

Annie: I went to stay at my friend's house…cabin…yeah Steve: Aha. Mark: These are all places sort of nearby here up the coast by ferry and then Hornby Island, actually, is just off of Vancouver Island. Actually, it took us quite a bit of time to get there; although, it's probably not that far from where we were on the Sunshine Coast. Apparently it's like an hour boat ride, but we didn't have a boat. We were going by car, so it took us, you know, six-seven hours and four ferries to get there.

Steve: Aha.

Tell me, Annie, what are you reading these days?

Annie: Harry Potter.

Steve: Harry Potter?

Annie: Yeah.

Steve: Really?

Annie: Yeah.

I'm about to start the fifth one, but it wasn't at the library. Steve: Ha. So you didn't read Harry Potter before? I thought you had read it before.

Annie: I read the first one like a few years ago -- a few summers ago -- and then I read the second one this summer and the fourth one this summer and then the third one was like March or something. It was kind of out of order, but I listened to the audio book, though.

Steve: Oh, okay.

Do you like listening to audio books?

Annie: Um, yeah. Well, it's fun with the whole family when we do it on the car ride. Steve: Aha.

Annie: But I liked reading them, too.

Steve: Aha.

Mark: Yeah, we listened to the audio book on the way to Kelowna Annie: No, Big White. Mark: Or Big White. Okay.

Steve: Oh. So everybody in the car sits quiet and you listen to the audio book?

Mark: Yeah.

Steve: Oh, that's kind of neat. Mark: Aha.

Steve: Why aren't you listening to the audio book in French or Japanese? Mark: I try to get them to listen to Harry Potter in Japanese in the car sometimes.

Annie: Well, it comes on when you touch shuffle. You were listening to music and all of a sudden this guy comes on and starts speaking Japanese.

Mark: And they really like it. Everybody else… Steve: And, Annie, you're going to be starting high school. Annie: Yeah.

Steve: First yeah of high school, right?

Annie: Yeah.

Steve: And do you think it will be very different from…is that grade seven or grade six?

Annie: Grade eight.

Steve: Oh, grade eight. Okay.

I don't know. So do you think it's going to be harder? Annie: Yeah.

Everybody says it is.

Steve: Aha.

And are all the courses in French or some are in French and some are in English?

Annie: Well, um, I have a friend, she's a year older and she was there and she says everything is in French, except for English and then Gym and Art or something. Steve: Aha.

So, lots of reading in French.

Annie: Yeah.

Steve: Right.

But you still prefer to read in English. I mean you know French at school, but all your reading is in English, yeah.

Annie: Yeah.

Steve: Oh, well.

Mark: Not too summer left either. There's ah…actually, there's still three weeks. Annie: Yeah.

Mark: Three weeks of summer vacation left.

Mark: Right?

Annie: Yeah.

Steve: What's that? Annie: My birthday.

Steve: I'd forgotten. It's not this month, is it? Annie: Yeah.

Steve: Oh. Oh, sheesh! Yes. And it's a beautiful day today. Mark: That's for sure. Steve: Gorgeous.

Mark: It's just about the hottest day we've had. Steve: I think I'm going in the ocean today. Mark: Aha.

Steve: Definitely.

Mark: I think I'll take the dog for a run…sneak in down there at the beach; although, I got accosted by the beach ranger -- the park ranger -- the other day. Steve: Because you had a dog not on a leash? Or, you're not allowed to have a dog there, period? Mark: You're not allowed the dog there, period. Steve: Right.

Mark: And I had the dog there not on a leash. The guy informed me that each one of those offenses was $150 fine.

Steve: Well, I guess.

Annie: You're like nice or something. Mark: But he let me off the hook.

Steve: Well, he should be really happy to see you again.

Mark: I know. But I went to a part of the beach where there weren't many people, but then he said well, you're near the boat launch and, you know, it could be dangerous if a boat ran over your dog. I mean, okay, the boats aren't running over my dog. But, anyway, I'll see if I can find a spot to go in with a dog. Because the only place you can take the dog swimming is at the dog beach, which is at the far end and is all rocky and terrible for swimming. Like, I'm not going to go swimming there because you can't get in the water. So the nice sandy part there's no dogs allowed, but I'll find a little corner so that I can swim with the dog. Steve: I hope you don't end up with $300 worth of fines. Mark: So far so good, knock on wood. I haven't been fined; although, I've been hassled a few times. There's two different types of people patrolling down there. There's the park ranger that patrols the park, but then there's also the bylaw officer that also seems to patrol, so I don't know. So far I've been lucky. Anyway, that's probably good for today. Steve: I think so.

Mark: Thanks Annie.

Steve: Because the weather is nice and we're going to go out and enjoy the weather. Mark: That's right. Steve: Bye for now.

Mark: Bye-bye.

Annie: Bye.