Anna: Hello Mr Bevan. I’m Anna, your tour guide.

Jake: Hi. Please, call me Jake.

Anna: OK, Jake. Nice to meet you. How was the flight? Are you very tired?

Jake: No, I’m fine.

Anna: Great. Let’s go to the car park then. Is it your first time here?

Jake: Yeah. I was in Europe when I was a student, but somehow I never got here.

Anna: And your final destination is London, is that right?

Jake: Yes. I’m going to give a talk at a conference in Oxford.

Anna: So work, not pleasure?

Jake: Yes -well, maybe some pleasure, too. I have a friend, well, an ex-girlfriend really, who I was with when I was a student. She’s British- she lives in Oxford – and we’re planning to meet up.

Anna: That’s nice! OK, so now I’m going to tell you a bit about our tour today. We’re going to drive to the centre – it takes about 45 minutes – and then we’re going to start at the Colosseum.

Jake: Great. I’ve always wanted to see it.

Anna: And then we’re going to visit the Forum. After that, we’re going to see the Pantheon – one of the oldest buildings in the city.

Jake: Wow.

Anna: So then we are very near the Via del Corso, where all the best shops are. Would you like to maybe do some shopping?

Jake: Well, I’d like to see the shops but I’m probably not going to buy anything.

Anna: Maybe a little present, a present for your friend in Oxford?

Jake: Well, maybe.

Anna: And then I’m sure you’re going to be hungry, so I’m going to take you to a really nice restaurant for lunch. We can have pizza, or a good carbonara, a gelato – an ice cream, that is. Our typical dishes, but I promise you, very different from Italian food in America.

Jake: Sounds great. And then back to the airport, I guess?

Anna: That’s right. We need to allow time for that.

Jake: Yes, I don’t want to miss my flight.

Anna: Don’t worry. We do this tour every day -and nobody has ever missed their flight.

Jake: Is it going to be very hot today?

Anna: No, not too hot. It’s going to be nice, about 22 degrees.

Jake: Perfect. It’s going to be a fantastic day.

Anna: Here we are. If you can just wait a minute while I pay for the parking. Oh, Mr Bevan – Jake -is this yours?

Jake: My passport! Thanks, Anna. Typical me. I always lose things when I’m travelling.

Sarah: Hello?

Jake: Sarah?

Sarah: Hi Jake.

Jake: Hi. Great to hear your voice! How are things?

Sarah: Fine, fine. How was the journey? When did you arrive in the UK?

Jake: Last night. The journey was fine. I got a cheap flight with Alitalia, but it meant a long stopover in Rome, but I went on a guided tour and I had a great time.

Sarah: That sounds like fun. What did you think of Rome?

Jake: Fantastic. I loved it. So when can we meet?

Sarah: I’m afraid I’m really busy this week. The only possible day for me is Tuesday. I’m going to London from Wednesday to Friday …

Jake: Tuesday. Let me look at my calendar.

Sarah: Wow, Jake, you put things in your calendar! You’re much more organized than when we were going out.

Jake: Well, I’m better than I was. But I nearly lost my passport when I was in Rome. OK, Tuesday. I’m not free in the evening. I’m having dinner with Mark Taylor, my old professor. Do you remember him? It’s at 7.30. I can’t change that. How about lunch?

Sarah: It depends on the time. A late lunch would be OK, around 1 .45?

Jake: The problem is I’m giving my talk at 2.00. And I’m having a breakfast meeting at 8.15 with some colleagues.

Sarah: Well, morning coffee or tea in the afternoon then. What are you doing then?

Jake: Let’s see … I’m going to a talk about climate change at 4.00. So, I think maybe morning coffee is best. And then we can try to arrange another time.

Sarah: OK. There’s a nice coffee bar in the High Street called The Grand Cafe. Meet there at 11.00?

Jake: Perfect. I’m really looking forward to it.

Sarah: Me too. Bye.

I’m lazy, but I like living in a clean tidy home. Maybe you’re the same. It doesn’t matter if you live by yourself, with a partner, or with a group of friends. You’re always going to have to do some housework. Learn a few cleaning tricks and you can have a clean home -and still have plenty of time to relax and do nothing.

Tip 1. Clean quickly but often. Clean for just ten minutes twice a day. This gives you time to, for example, load the dishwasher and do one other thing like vaccuming. Set an alarm on your phone to motivate yourself.

Tip 2. Keep cleaning products in the right place. Put cleaning products near the place where you need them. Keep bathroom cleaners in the bathroom, keep bin bags by the bin, and keep dishwasher tablets on top of the dishwasher. Sometimes you don’t clean if you can’t immediately see what you need, and you don’t want to look for it.

Tip 3. Clean the microwave regularly. You probably use this every day and it gets dirty quickly, believe me. But cleaning it is super easy. All you need to do is pour a little water into a microwave safe bowl, slice a lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the water. Then, put the two halves of the lemon in the bowl and microwave on high for three minutes. Leave the door closed for another five minutes, and then clean the inside with a cloth.

Tip 4. Use your dishwasher to clean other things. If you have a dishwasher it’s probably already your best friend. But did you know that it can clean much more than just kitchen things? You can use it to clean all kinds of things made of plastic like toys, or even flip flops or other plastic shoes, and also for things made of metal like tools, or keys.

Tip 5. Tell people to take off their shoes when they come in. If you hate vacuuming, but you also hate the floor because you don’t do the vacuuming, there’s an easy solution -tell your housemates and guests take off their shoes at the front door. And if they forget or refuse, give them the vacuum cleaner.

Tip 6. Use your socks to clean the floor. If you have a hard floor, like wood or stone, for example, make your socks work for you. Take your shoes off, and slide across a different part of your floor each time you move across it. It’ll soon be completely clean. Then, just throw your socks in the washing machine.

And finally tip 7. Listen to music while you clean. Sometimes you really need to do some housework that you hate, like ironing or cleaning the bathroom. Put on your favourite playlist and focus on the music, not the boring housework.

And one last word. Many people say that lazy people are often the best employees, because they find the most efficient way to complete a task. That’s the way you need to think when you’re cleaning. Good luck!