Hi, I’m Nick Simcock, an English Language coach. I help Italians to unlock their English.

So for this podcast today I have decided to interview my wife

My wife Laura, who I met in England in 1999, but who moved to England before that.

So Laura, thanks for doing this.

Hi, Hi Nick.

Hi, it’s a bit strange isn’t it?

It’s a bit strange to talk to you in front of a microphone, but yeah.

Okay, so first where did you grow up?

I grew up in Belluno, North Italy, where we live now, countryside, nice hilly area.

And what kind of house did you grow up in?

At first it was an apartment, quite a big apartment for the four of us

And then we moved to my grandparents house, which is nearly a single house, with a big garden.

Okay, and so as I said, we met in England in ‘99, but you moved to England before that. When did you move to England?

I moved to England in August 1997

And I want to talk about (in this podcast) about the different styles of houses in England and how they compare to Italy. So what were your first impressions of houses in England?

What were your first thoughts and feelings?

Okay but because I come from Belluno, which more or less in the area where I live, they’re all single houses, for me it was a bit strange to see all these rows of houses. Just one after another attached to another, to the other one, and they’re called terraced houses.

For me it was a bit strange, I suppose if you live in a big city you probably see these houses before.

A bit boring. That was in Manchester, right?

Yeah, that was in Manchester, just outside Manchester.

Okay so yeah, you’re talking about terraced houses, so they all share a single wall, and they’re all joined together in a long line and there are these really organised housing estates where they all look the same, both sides of the road, have these lines of houses

So… and did you go and live in one of these houses?

Yeah, I lived in one of these houses. So, I lived in an area called Didsbury, or Chorlton actually, Chorlton. And the terraced houses I’m talking about, they were like original old terraced houses, so really typical.

You’ve got a wall…

Yeah they come from the Victorian time

Yeah, you know the one that you see in films if they’re based in 1940, 50, these terraced houses. So yeah, I lived in one of them.

And so they all have the same layout, right?

Yeah, the same layout. Front door, on the right the living room with the bay window, then a small corridor, at the back you’ve got the kitchen. And the kitchen has got two or three big windows facing the garden, so the back garden. Every house has a back garden. And then you’ve got steep steps going upstairs and that is where you’ve got the bedrooms. Two or three bedrooms and maybe one or two bathrooms

And listen, you said they were a bit boring, were they maybe a bit claustrophobic as well?

No, claustrophobic no, but boring from outside because you’ve got like brick walls, so it looks a bit all the same, but then I realised everyone changes, and make their house different by painting the door, maybe red, pink or whatever and the bay window, that is the big window in the living room, they have, [non so], curtains, flowers, so everyone makes their front garden and the back garden different but the house itself is more of less the same.

So I want to take you back now to England when you were living there, when you first moved to England. And if we go in through the front door of the house where you were, what’s the first thing that really strikes you, and you think, “oh, well, that’s different!”

Oh it was definitely the carpet. The house had carpets, like moquette we call it in Italy, basically everywhere maybe it wasn’t in the kitchen but it was definitely at the front door, the living room, all the bedrooms, I think also the bathroom, and then, oh the steps had the same…

Well if you say steps, I think of the steps outside of the house, but you mean the stairs.

The stairs are covered in this carpet and yeah, that was a bit… and this steep staircase

Oh, the staircases in the old Victorian houses were very steep, yeah.

That is what I remember.

And also carpet in the bathroom. Carpet in the bathroom.

Actually in the first flat I was renting with other people, I decided one day to take the carpet off, because I wanted to see what was underneath, and it was wood! It would have been really nice without.

And what you mean, so it would have been, you put it back?

I put it back. But there was underneath, a really nice wooden floor.

And in the kitchen yeah, we have something down with plastic usually called Linoleum

Yeah, Linoleum, I think it had Linoleum.

Or maybe tiles or wood yeah, but

And what did you like about … I know carpet for Italians is like ‘oh no, but it must be so unhygienic’, in a bathroom as well, no? How do you clean it? And also …

But what was the benefit of having carpet? What did you like about it?

Well, that you can walk without slippers, you can walk bare feet basically everywhere in the house, so I don’t think I had a pair of slippers when I was living there.

That also reminds me that, when I was a kid I remember at home, there was always the same chorus from my Mum “Take your shoes off!, shoes off at the door!”

Yeah, exactly, so you leave the shoes outside, because there’s carpet everywhere in the house.

Exactly. And so tell us, I don’t know… what about the kitchen? What was missing in the kitchen, or what was very different? Do you remember? What comes to mind?

No, there was nothing different, well the kitchen I lived, I, that was in the apartment, it was very spacious, loads of light because it had these two big windows facing the gardens.

No I don’t think it was missing anything, oh the strange thing, it had, maybe not in this case, but I’ve seen it before, you’ve got sometimes the washing machine in the kitchen.

Oh yeah, that’s true. That’s very common.

That’s strange for me to see the washing machine in the kitchen, but it’s very common I found that.

Because the washing machine should go in a laundry room, or the bathroom?

Yeah, and If you don’t have a laundry room or a big bathroom, that’s where the washing machine ends up, in the kitchen, next to the dishwasher.

And what about the other types of houses in England, because in houses we have the detached houses, which are singular, on their own. We also have the old cottages in the countryside like more than a hundred… hundreds of years old, really beautiful cottages, roses around the door, what did you think about those things?

Well, it’s something that you always dream of, to have, no? You go to Cornwall, you go to Wales, you go to Cotswolds and that’s where you find these lovely cottages. I don’t know how comfortable they are, because to me they look a bit cold, or maybe if you buy an old cottage you need to restore it and put the central heating, so, but from outside they’re beautiful. 

And my last question is, if you went back to England now, what kind of house would you like to live in, if money were no object? You have loads of money, you can live wherever you like in England in any kind of house, what would you choose?

I think I will go for a detached house like a single house, having said that even a semi detached is nice

Yeah, semi detached the house where you have two houses joined.

Absolutely symmetric, yeah, that I don’t mind.

But then, if I have to live in the city centre, a nice top floor flat

Do you remember in Manchester, there was that first flat for a million pounds, was it a million pounds a month rent?

I don’t remember but it was a ridiculous amount of money a month and it was the top floor of this brand new building, right in the city centre. All glass and steel, the design.

A beautiful thing. Rented by a famous footballer or somebody.

Yeah, because obviously Manchester had Manchester United.

Okay. Laura, thanks very much for this interesting chat.

It was nice to remember things from England

Yeah, it is nice to remember where we were, isn’t it?

And yeah, when we’ve made millions and millions we’ll go back and we’ll buy a big Victorian detached house in Manchester.

That would be nice. Or maybe a nice cottage with central heating.

Yeah, looking at the sea.

Oh, that sounds beautiful, okay.

Maybe. Why not?

So say goodbye. Thanks Laura.

Bye! Bye Bye.