IELTS Speaking for Success - ☕️ Morning routine (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Is 5:30 AM an ungodly hour? Rory defends his early bird habits while Maria offers wilder ways to start your day, from petting cats to 'energizing' showers. Discover key idioms for your daily schedule. Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/ Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Sunshine. I'm Maria. My name is Rory, and we're the host of the AIL Speaking for Success podcast. The podcast aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We started this podcast to give you super grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high-IELD school. Your bad nine store. Namaste for more band nine vocabulary and grammar. Oh, now he's a yoga teacher. I am a yoga teacher.

So this time I'm not lying. A fully qualified professional yoga teacher. Right, Rory, like, do you give yoga classes? Can our listeners go to you, you know, to learn yoga moves? Not yet. I will be teaching in the summer when I go to Oxford. So assuming the students there survive, maybe then other things will happen. Excuse me, like, where are you going?

To Oxford. Oh, you're going to Oxford. Ah, so you are an Oxford professor now, Mr. Rory, Mr. Duncan. Sir, not only is it a band nine podcast, but we have an Oxford professor and a yoga teacher. Wow. Also, book author. And me, you know, I'm just, you know, nothing. Just charisma, just joy.

Just, you know, pure beauty. Right, dear listener, hello, what are we talking about today? What are we talking about? We're going to be talking about. morning time. I, no, listen, you, I wrote a script specifically for this. I'm going to say it. Okay, dear, listen, we have the script, okay, we just follow the script that Rory wrote. Oh, good morning, Rory. Good morning, Rory. Good morning, Maria. Good morning. Ah, okay, shall we talk about mornings? Yeah, that was easy, wasn't it? How are you, dear, listen? Are you okay? Yes, it's a Ben 9 podcast.

Just stay with us, all right? We're going to give you super vocabulary in a moment after the Is there a joke or shall we just talk about morning time? We're going to talk about morning time. Let's talk about the morning. Do you like getting up early in the morning? Well, generally, I don't mind doing it. I'm actually pretty used to it during the week because I have a lot on my plate to get through

and usually I'm quite well rested enough. So that's not a problem. If it's a weekend though, I definitely prefer a lion with a book or just my phone. What do you usually do in the morning? It's pretty consistent, actually. I always get up, drink water, and then there's always some form of exercise like yoga or weightlifting. That depends on the day. And after that, I usually shower and get started on my work for the day while I have breakfast. What did you do in the morning when you were a child? I don't really remember, to be honest. It must have been roughly similar, though. Oh, actually, no. I would always skip breakfast and then just shower and take breakfast and then just shower and take.

head off to school after I got dressed. I don't think that was the healthiest of choices in hindsight, but it does stick out in my mind right now. I think I also used to get up a lot later, but kids tend to need more sleep, don't they? Do you spend your mornings doing the same things on weekends and weekdays? Sort of. Even if I have a lion, I generally get up and do some sort of exercise, though maybe it won't be as intense as during the week. And breakfast is usually there, but it's something more substantial than the protein shake I have every weekday. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my

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click the link in the description below See you soon Right de Lissonam If you enjoy early mornings You can call yourself a morning person I am a morning person I am not a morning person You are not a morning person

I am not a morning person Rory is an early bird I am very early bird So early I go to early bird You know like an early Means like 530 in the morning It's an ungodly hour, dear listener. It's freaking crazy. It's not ungodly. It's super early,

five freaking 30 o'clock. So I'm an early bird. I'm not an early bird. I'm a morning person. I'm not a morning person. If it's your habit to get up early in the morning, you can say, I'm used to getting up early in the morning. I'm used to getting up at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. I'm a very busy person. I have a lot on my plate. So I usually get up early. Or, dear listener, I hate getting up early in the morning. I usually get up at 12.

Well, you might hate it, but you might have to get up early in the morning for work. Yeah, I have to. I have to do it. Yeah, I have to get up to go to work. So I don't like it. I dislike it. I can't stand it. I hate it.

To have a lie in. This is the word of the episode, dear listener, to have a lie in. Means to lie in bed and just chill out. Yeah, kind of you don't have to get up early. You just wake up, you stay in bed later than usual in the morning. So to have a lie in. Lie, L-I-E, just will lie on the bed. So I enjoy having a lie.

in on the weekend. Okay. Or when I have a lie-in, I usually read a book. I prefer a lie-in with a book. I don't like getting up too early in the morning. I prefer having a lie-in with a book. Sensible. Rory is pretty boring, so he just says like, I get up, I drink water, you know, I do some exercise.

But... Well, sorry. I can't be like action man all the time. What would you like me to do in the morning? Okay, I'm going to tell you, Wayne. Oh, God. So, according to flown.com, morning routine ideas. 35 things to do in the morning.

Okay, there you go. Get natural sunlight. Do somatic breath work. Oh, come on. You do plenty of somatic breathwork when you're in bed. Shush, shush. Now I'm telling you what to do. You wanted me to tell you what to do in the morning.

I'm regretting that choice already. Dear listener, just choose something interesting to say, you know. Gently stretch. You stretch your body. Okay. Right. Then take an energizing shower. So don't just say, I take a shower.

You say, I take an energizing shower. Oh, don't you don't. You have a shower or you take a shower or have a glass of water. You'll be fine. You take an energizing shower, which means that you just pour some warm water and cold water on yourself. Even if you don't do it, just say it, just, you know, to be interesting. Then do a Sudoku puzzle. When you wake up in the morning.

Yeah, exactly. Play a calm, jazzy mix in the background. You pet a cat in the morning. The first thing you get up, you pet a cat. you pet a cat Oh I'm allergic to cat So that's not happening So you kind of you touch a cat

But you say pet a cat Check in with your money No no no no no no no no no we don't do it Oh yeah there you 32 Drink your morning coffee without guilt You're not meant to have coffee in the morning It's bad for you

Yeah yeah you should drink a warm glass of water. Yeah, number one, drink a glass of water before anything else. Number one. Then get natural summary. So, do you listen. Just some ideas for you from flown.com blog lifestyle things to do in the morning. Thank you very much. Or you could just describe what you're doing in your early bird yoga classes. I could do that. That'd be easy. Yeah, so you can say, like, I drink a glass of water to get started on my day, you know, to get started. I listen to music. I listen to music. to get started, to get me going. Yay.

But still, listen, maybe you have your morning routine, you know? Maybe you dance. Like, what do you, what, what do you do? What do you do? I think a lot of people might cook breakfast for their family. That's got to be pretty taxing. They could see that. I think it's quite taxing, but I enjoy it.

Taxing meaning it requires a lot of energy. When I was a child, I used to play in the morning. Or I used to skip breakfast. I didn't have any breakfast. I headed off to school. I went to school. So I would skip breakfast because there was no time. And I would head off to school.

Well, there was time. I was just a very irresponsible child. And that is why I'm short now because I didn't eat enough breakfast when I was younger. When I think about it now, in hindsight, like when I think about it now, it wasn't really healthy. like skipping breakfast is awful for your body. So in hind sight, when I think about it now, it wasn't healthy. On the weekend or at the weekend, I usually have a lie-in. Again, I have a lie-in just to stay in bed later than usual.

Then I get up, do some exercise. Again, you know, Rory just repeats the vocabulary. But what we do say, you remember, de lye listener, you know, I take an energizing shower. I have my protein breakfast. I set up my top three priorities for the day. You see, the listener, you know, I do a brain game. You could focus on the vocabulary, on the grammar rather than the vocabulary.

I said, even if I have a lion, and then I generally get up. But then I said, though maybe it won't be as intense, will not be. Even though it's a regular action, still won't. Oh. Then there's also the word substantial. Come on, that's got to be C1. Substantial is good. Or, dear listener, you can say.

No, you can't. Don't listen. Ah, something good. Oh, yeah. On the weekend, I usually practice a quick gratitude, ritual. Gratitude? When you are thankful for everything, ritual is like ritual.

like routine, like you, what is a ritual, Rory? I don't know. A ritual is something that you do regularly. Often it's without thought or recognition of where it comes from. Ritual is C2. A way of doing something in which the same actions are done in the same way every time. So, for example, coffee and the newspaper are part of my morning ritual. Morning ritual, there we go, dear listener, C2, bad nine.

What do you do on the weekend? and you practice a quick gratitude ritual. And then, dear listener, you do a two-minute body scan and release tension. What a load of absolute nonsense. You kind of you scan your body and you just get rid of all the tension. There is no tension. I'm totally fine. Tension? I don't know. I mean, if you've not had a restful sleep, maybe you wake up feeling stressed.

So the body scan will help you release the stress. You can start your day in a nice way. However, you could also just have a lie in and relax and chill out. There you go. Have a lie in, idiomatic vocabulary, chill out, a phrasal verb, and all of it normal. None of it involves drinking mindful coffee. Mindful coffee, yeah, mindful coffee. And, dear listener, now you are ready for a joke, which is connected to coffee and morning.

What was the joke? The vocabulary and suggestions for more. morning activity. No, the vocabulary is just amazing. Okay. How do you start your day? Actually, I, you know, like, when I'm still in bed and I kind of, I wake up, I don't open my eyes. So my eyes are closed. I wake up and I do kind of say affirmations. So it's kind of self-hypnosis. I have my special affirmations, kind of statements, which are positive. So I say them. And then I say that, okay, so today is going to be a good day for me. Yeah, I know, I know it kind of sounds, you know, silly, but it does work. So I kind of say, Maria, like, this day is going to be great.

I'm going to be in a good mood. Everything will be fine. So I'm happy. I'm healthy. And, you know, like, yeah, so it's just my motto for the day to day. So I do it every day before I open my eyes. So just, you know, like the minute kind of you feel that, okay, I'm awake. So, you know, so, you You should say that. It takes about a couple, a couple of minutes. I don't think that sounds silly at all. I do something very similar, so I don't think that's a problem. And I do it, you know, like before going to bed, before going to sleep.

So kind of I fall asleep with these, you know, statements. And I wake up with them. So, yeah. That's my evening and morning rituals. Now you know the secret to listen to a happy life. So the joke. Oh, we've still got time for the joke? Oh, God.

Absolutely. So. Other people can't see your face. And Maria just had this really intense look at her eyes and she was like, absolutely. So we're getting the joke whether we like it or not. Rory, what do you call a person who makes coffee? A barista? Yeah, a barista.

So the joke is about a barista. Okay. Why did the barista get fired? I don't know. She kept showing up latte. Late. Okay. So the coffee is called like cappuccino or we can have what do you call it?

Latte. Latte? Yes, L-A-T-T-E. Latte. Latte is a hot drink made from espresso and warm milk. Late, if you are late, you are late. You are not on time. Oh, God.

Thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much for putting up with that. Bye. Bye. Do you like getting up early in the morning? Well, generally, I don't mind doing it. I'm actually pretty used to it during the week because I have a lot on my plate to get through

and usually I'm quite well rested enough. So that's not a problem. If it's a weekend, though, I definitely prefer a lion with a book or just my phone. What do you usually do in the morning? It's pretty consistent actually. I always get up, drink water, and then there's always some form of exercise like yoga or weightlifting. That depends on the day. And after that, I usually shower and get started on my work for the day while I have breakfast. What did you do in the morning when you were a child? I don't really remember, to be honest. It must have been roughly similar though. Oh, actually, no. I would always skip breakfast and then just share. shower and head off to school after I got dressed. I don't think that was the healthiest of choices

in hindsight, but it does stick out in my mind right now. I think I also used to get up a lot later, but kids tend to need more sleep, don't they? Do you spend your mornings doing the same things on weekends and weekdays? Sort of. Even if I have a lion, I generally get up and do some sort of exercise, though maybe it won't be as intense as during the week. And breakfast is usually there, but it's something more substantial than the protein shake I have every weekday.