Shadowing Practice: early spring days in london - Learn English Speaking with Video
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There is something in that delayed gratification of finally getting something right after so, so many attempts.
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It just feels like I'm getting somewhere.
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Woohoo!
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I have made something.
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Some songs come to you quickly.
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Oxytocin came to me in two sessions, but I'm starting to realise that some take longer.
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And this one that I've been working on...
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Man, it's been a while.
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This is an idea called Still Water.
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I wrote it initially last summer, and I think it's such a spring song.
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I tried loads of ideas and just nothing sat well with the initial chords.
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But I cracked it open today because I've been walking through all the blossom lined streets.
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The sun is out, spring is here.
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And I was like, you know what, it's time to finish Still Water.
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It's all about wanting every fig on the tree.
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Ultimately, I think I'd have to trim this
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beautiful intro.
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It's so muddy.
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I want it to sound like the earth.
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There is something in that delayed gratification of finally getting something right after so, so many attempts.
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It started to sound like something.
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I've honestly just been scouring sample packs trying to find
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that piano and then just layering different things on top of that initial sample.
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The scroll got the better of me this morning.
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There are so many good things about being freelance and working for yourself, but sometimes I do just wish that I had somewhere to be at a certain time,
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because the lack of accountability means that you are having to be very self -driven.
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And I actually really like the days where I'm told you've got to be somewhere at nine.
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I think a balance is just really important.
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When I get in a scroll hole in bed in the morning, I have to snap out of it.
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So I put on a podcast that got me out of bed.
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I did my breakfast, got dressed, made my coffee, but then I have to do a little dopamine detox before I start work.
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So I'll journal and I'll meditate.
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The meditation in system.
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The journaling is really good for just getting any thoughts
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or worries you have out on paper because generally I get in a scroll
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because I don't want to get up and
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that usually means there's something I don't want to do in my work day
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or whatever and they just level me right out.
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For meditation I have always used Headspace.
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I love that app, I've been using it for eight years.
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Eight years is crazy to say out loud.
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With Headspace you can do the courses which are very useful, they kind of ground my practice but then On top of that, you can do these like SOS meditations, incredibly, incredibly helpful.
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You can just dip into them and they're like 5, 10, 15 minutes.
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And for those kind of leveling resets, they're so helpful.
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And as you know, I love the sleep casts.
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They are my number one way to like help my head if I'm struggling to sleep.
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And they're always expanding the collection.
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I think they've got like a travel series going on at the moment
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because I went to listen the other day while Jack was away and I found one that was set in Japan.
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In my experience, there's not one single thing that's gonna fix your nervous system or your anxiety.
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But I do think that there are a few tools that can really, really help.
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And for me, I found that Headspace is one of them.
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For me, it's just great that Headspace has these different kinds of meditations for different situations and scenarios.
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It means it's a really adaptable tool that just works in my day to day.
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Headspace has proven to increase happiness and decrease stress in just 10 days.
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It's just crazy to me that for so long, I survived with zero techniques to manage my stress.
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Days like today would just be ruined from 9 :00 a .m.
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And it is currently 10 :05.
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and I'm okay.
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If you use my link in the description
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or you scan the QR code on screen now you can try headspace free for 60 days.
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I would really recommend giving it a go and just seeing how Headspace can work for you.
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And thank you so much Headspace for working with me on this video.
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It's always a joy because as you can tell, I'm a paying subscriber and a big fan.
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Okay, time to work.
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I'm going to go to the next one.
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- I'm glad I was.
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- Good.
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Thank you.
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- Yeah.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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I'm going to be a little bit.
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you you Oh Thank you.
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Yesterday just was not my day, even slightly, when it came to work.
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I just crashed out really hard and just felt very overwhelmed.
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And then to top it all off, a photo landed in my inbox from the Cezanne event.
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Look.
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lenses lie, you will look different on every single lens in loads of different lighting, different angles and I logically know all this right?
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But I still got really, really in my head about the photo that I was sent.
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I am like twice the size of the two girls in the photo with me.
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And I know partially that's because I'm standing on the edge of the photo and that distorts.
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And I know partially it's the angle, partially it's the flash, but just like, oh my goodness, I...
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cannot get it out of my head, even now.
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It's so funny how the emotional side of your brain will just override the rational.
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I was in the queue to try and get bicep tickets for Corsica Studios but I did not make it.
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I was in the queue for half an hour.
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I should have realised at that point that it was long gone.
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That has been my third or fourth attempt to get tickets for any of the Corsica final shows.
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If anyone has a hookup, please let me know.
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All I want is tickets to Corsica.
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And I got a lime, I took a little detour through the park.
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so good i don't know why i'm standing at the top
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of my stairs just chatting to you by the way 168 hours i try to keep quite curated
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so i kind of trimmed the fat
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but i just wanted to check in tell you what i'm
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up to tell you what's going on in my little head
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i have a lovely day planned i'm gonna crack on with
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some work now make myself a little cup of tea that's my update oh my god i'm dead hello you look lovely
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- I'm wearing a bag and white t -shirt.
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- Dreams, dreams always.
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We are going to the Apple Music International Women's Day event, but we are late.
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We couldn't find our way.
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We're in Bathsy Power Station.
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It is just hectic.
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We're not South London girls, but hey, it's fine.
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And we're men in disguise.
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Woo!
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- Woo -hoo!
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Put your hands together for Mahalia!
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Yeah!
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Welcome, babe!
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I was just making music in my room with my computer, and it was just for me and just for the love of it.
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So I feel like because I've kind of returned to that energy now, I feel like I've gotten in touch with my brothers even more.
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And yeah, I'm probably here.
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This guy just said to me, have you heard of Gypsy Shrine?
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And I said, no. She said, I used to model for them and showed me...
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The craziest?
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Oh my god!
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The first shoot is the best one.
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They said more glitter.
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More!
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I love it!
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You were iconic!
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Thank you, thank you girl.
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I'm Sarah Merpade of Adolta.
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Also not very sexy to end.
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It's okay babe, you're not on a date.
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You are filming.
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No. I have a session today with my friend Ryan.
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We're writing some house music.
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At the moment, I just have the worst nerves before sessions.
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They make me feel like I'm going into an exam.
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It doesn't help that it's 10am at the moment.
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But it's alright.
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Like I'm walking through the park, it's really nice.
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I have my little coffee.
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I've got an almond flat white because...
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I'm not a darey before singing, should I be singing?
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I'm listening to the Rose Grey album because I saw her on the panel yesterday.
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I was like, you know what, I'm not actually giving loud and pleasable a chance and it's It's so good.
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I don't know why I haven't listened to it before now.
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Jordan told me to listen to it as well.
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I did a post on like what the cool girls were listening to last summer.
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and I asked my friend Jordan, she was like the Rose Grey album, you should try it.
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Jordan was right.
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Hopefully I feel nice and calm by the time I arrive.
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Also, it's Eve today.
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Everyone's out with their families and it's just so nice.
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By the time you see this, it will be long gone.
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Happy Mead.
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very unsure about how i feel about this shot for many
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reasons it feels really close to my face even though it's probably not the session with ryan
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and james was really good so it turns out ryan has a producer partner called james
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and so he brought some songs and we wrote to them we
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a hard one to start with which maybe we shouldn't have done.
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I also loved starting at 10.
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10 is a perfect time to start a session.
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We did like 45 minutes of chat and then we just got into it.
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God you know
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when you're taking your makeup off that's sat on your face all day it's the best feeling in the world
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and it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.
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It was actually a really good session for my confidence.
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There's just no worse feeling than leaving
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and feeling like you did a bad job especially as people have given up their time to work together with you.
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I was the one singing as well so it just like pushed me to use my voice a bit more.
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Like Ryan and James just
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environment really comfortable so I felt like I could sing because what tends to happen at the moment is
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I can sing fine when I'm at home, but the moment I'm in a session, my voice kind of closes up.
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And the thing about making music is you just have to keep trying.
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You'll write 100 songs, sometimes it's the first one that's amazing, sometimes it's song 100.
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There's also a certain amount of momentum you need with creative projects.
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I was talking to Ryan about the first music he ever made
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and he was saying 'oh my god it was so bad' and we listened to some of it and he's definitely
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a great writer now.
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We were talking about music that we made a few years ago and how none of that that we made separately.
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It's just another reminder that it's just good to get stuff out.
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Now there's obviously the flip side of that.
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When we saw the panel yesterday, so many of the women on
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that panel had held a lot of their music for a long time
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while they've kind of worked out who they were as an artist.
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I also just kind of feel like that comes with age as well and experience.
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Yeah, like when I think about the number of songs I've written since I started writing again, we're talking like 75.
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maybe 80?
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Yeah it's a fine balance because sometimes you just have to get the reps in
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but at a certain point you have to start sharing the art that you're making.
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In your creative pursuits do you feel like sharing is an important part of the process?
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For me personally, sharing is important, like selective sharing.
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Anyway, it was really good for my confidence.
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I'm feeling a lot better.
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I've got a session on Tuesday as well, and it's made me feel so much better about that session, 'cause that's with someone I've never met before.
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Someone who produced one of my favourite songs in 2024.
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I'm really excited for that, but I'm also super nervous.
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But a bit less nervous now.
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I forgot that it makes you so tired.
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I literally got home and it's late.
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on my bed, unable to move frozen in time.
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And I had my friends leaving drinks this evening, I was like dragging myself out of bed.
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Anyway, that's my little clean face.
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Keeping skincare super simple, although I am going to reintroduce tretinoin soon.
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I didn't want to reintroduce it before I did my microneedling, but I think I'm probably not going to get any more macronidling done for a while so I think it's probably time.
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Conversation for another day.
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Let's go to sleep.
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Hi!
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Oh my god the bag!
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It's my first outing with her!
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Sorry I was like I don't have time to do this and I'm working on my lateness.
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Space NK own brand body oil that is sparkly.
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It's not a body oil.
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It's a dry oil.
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I feel like some people like brought up their chest and stuff.
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I feel like it's a good alternative.
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And it's so nice but it's the dark brown one that you need to get.
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Even on us.
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It's like a dead body right now.
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Oh no this isn't so nice.
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Really?
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No it's like thick oil.
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Look at my new hair.
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Oh it's so oily.
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So good to drink. So
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i'm not entirely sure what is up with me today i have felt so aggy and so
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sad and that's really unusual for me especially when i'm not in my luteal phase there's no like
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hormonal reason why i should feel like this we had a
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really nice walk in the park went to hackney downs
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and obviously got pappos had a nice little chat with gabe
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while we were there as well and i was feeling really down on myself
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that i didn't have plans this weekend but i had plans on thursday night
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and friday night i don't know why i'm feeling funny about being in on a saturday especially
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when i'm in this kind of a mood this is not a mood
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that i should be bringing out into the world honestly it could be anything
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but i think mainly i just feel this gap at the moment between
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where I feel like I should be in my life, and where I currently am.
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There's a lot of stuff I don't share on here about what's going on.
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There's some stuff I guess.
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I hate to be vague, I hate not being transparent but I have to be for a while.
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There's some elements of life
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that have really not panned out the way I wanted them to
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and that is just life and I just have to practice acceptance around it.
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Like I'm not in the driver's seat for a lot of this stuff.
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Sometimes life just happens to you and that is fine, you just have to respond and part of the response is going I can either accept the thing,
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as it is or continues, lest it plague me.
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Or I can try and respond to the things that can be shaped by me.
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But a lot of this stuff is just completely out of my control
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so the way to happiness is just to accept them as they are.
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And I'm generally pretty good at that but sometimes, some days, it just doesn't quite work.
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Also I'm really sorry if you can hear "the washing machine upstairs." That must be really annoying.
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And I just look at my output online and I'm like, you're not doing enough, you're not making enough.
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Look, all these people who are doing TikTok and YouTube and Substack and they're being consistent.
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Things I said I was gonna do in January, build those systems.
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Like I have not built those systems and I'm feeling down about it.
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Like I'm actually finally sitting down and reading Parish Review.
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I guess it's the new edition of the Parish Review.
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Issue, the new issue of the Parish Review.
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Oh my God, let's try that again.
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The new issue of the Parish Review arrived I've been reading it It's good,
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but this is like the first time I'm sitting down to read in fucking ages, honestly.
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I've been picking up a book for like 10 minutes every three days at the moment, and I'm using all of this time to just doom scroll and I just...
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frustrate myself because I see where the problems are and I try and sort them out and I just
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don't manage it again and again so if you're in that same position as well just know that like
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mate I'm right here with you I want to be able to make videos recommending like
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really good books and films and TV and all this stuff
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and I just don't make any fucking time to consume any of it.
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And I feel completely out of control of that relationship with my phone.
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Really I should just delete Instagram and TikTok and Call it a day.
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Anyway, sorry, that was a big old moan.
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Oh, and also my great aunt died today, which is like, sorry, I just checked my phone and saw my family talking about it, which is just super, super sad.
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She was like the matriarch of all of the Trinidad side of our family and a really impressive woman.
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And obviously my grandma's sister, she was incredibly close to her.
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There's just stuff going on.
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I've also spent so much of this week working on one particular song.
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and it's nowhere near done.
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And I really thought I would finish it this week, but that is not happening.
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Some things just take longer.
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So I tried to engineer some self -esteem today.
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I cleaned the house up.
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I haven't managed everywhere.
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I've done the living room.
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kitchen and I clean the bathroom and I am now trying to get my head into this Paris review.
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Actually the first story I'm really into at the moment is really good
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but it's very dreamy and cerebral
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and I just love stuff that's written about women having fun and that is what this is.
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Anyway I'm also having a really nice cup of tea.
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If you don't know my tea of choice is decaf Earl Grey. so, so good.
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Anyway, thanks for listening.
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We have a brief bit of time today, so I've booked tickets to the Rose Wiley exhibition at the RA.
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I've been meaning to go.
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It looks really, really good.
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But yeah, I'm a bit frazzled.
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The train was just insane this morning.
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- Thank you.
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you .
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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you you you
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Context & Background
In this video, the speaker shares their creative journey and personal reflections while experiencing the early spring days in London. They describe the emotional process of completing a song titled "Still Water," which has evolved since its inception last summer. The speaker highlights moments of frustration and triumph, revealing their practice of meditation and journaling as essential tools to enhance focus and creativity. This casual yet insightful narrative provides a glimpse into balancing freelance work with self-discipline and personal growth.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “Delayed gratification” - refers to the ability to wait in order to obtain something desirable.
- “I cracked it open today” - a useful phrase indicating a breakthrough or moment of clarity.
- “The scroll got the better of me” - a colorful way to express how one can become distracted, particularly by social media.
- “Dopamine detox” - involves taking a break from activities that provide instant gratification, allowing for a reset of focus.
- “Leveling resets” - signifies practices that help restore balance or calm, such as meditation or journaling.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To use the shadowing technique with this transcript, follow these steps to enhance your IELTS speaking practice and improve English pronunciation:
- Listening: First, listen to the video attentively. Focus on the speaker's tone, rhythm, and emotion. This will help you understand how certain phrases fit into everyday speech.
- Read Along: Use the transcript as a guide while listening. Noting how phrases are constructed will enhance your comprehension and retain the speaker's voice in your mind.
- Shadowing: Start mimicking the speaker in real-time. As the speaker talks, attempt to speak along with them, matching their pace and intonation. This shadow speech will aid in developing a more natural speaking style.
- Record Yourself: After practicing, record your voice while using the same phrases. Compare your pronunciation with the original speaker to identify areas for improvement.
- Repetition: Repeat this process several times. Consistency is key in mastering the phrases and improving your flow. Make sure to integrate those expressions into your daily conversations.
Incorporating these steps into your practice can significantly enhance your command of spoken English and boost your confidence. Remember, the ultimate goal is to communicate effectively, and using the shadowspeak method is a powerful tool to reach that aim.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been working · I've been walking · I've honestly just been scouring |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have made · it's been · has proven |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was set · be ruined · was sent |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | courses which are · Someone who produced · people who are |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.