T.1 Fredericks’s Reastaurant

Interviewer Kevin, why did you decide to open a restaurant in Chile?

Kevin I’d always wanted to have my own restaurant and it would have been very expensive to do that in England. I’d visited Chile as a tourist and loved it, and I thought it would be a good place because Chileans are very pro-European, and are quite open to new things, new ideas. So, I opened Frederick’s.

Interviewer Why did you call the restaurant Frederick’s?

Kevin Because Frederick’s my father’s name. it’s my second name too.

Interviewer What kind of food do you serve?

Kevin Mainly international dishes like pasta, steak and fries, risotto – but we also do several English dishes as well.

Interviewer Were Chilean people surprised when they heard that an English chef was going to open a restaurant here?

Kevin Yes, they were – very! I think people don’t usually expect the English to be good cooks.

Interviewer Is your chef English?

Kevin No, he is Chilean – but I’ve taught him to make some English dishes.

Interviewer What kind of English dishes do you have on your menu?

Kevin Well, we are open in the morning, and we serve traditional English breakfasts, and then we have a lot of English desserts at lunchtime, for example trifle – that’s a typical English dessert made with fruit and cake and cream. And we do proper English teas in the afternoon – tea with cakes or sandwiches.

Interviewer Are the English dishes popular?

Kevin Yes, especially the desserts and cakes. I think people here in Chile have a very sweet tooth.

Interviewer People who visit England always that the food isn’t very good, or that you have to spend a lot of money to eat well. Do you agree?

Kevin I think eating good food is never cheap. But I think, that today, the best place for a tourist to eat in England is in a pub, especially the ones called gastropubs – pubs which are also restaurants. These pubs are beginning to serve really good food that’s not too expensive.

T.2 Experience of a referee

Interviewer: What was the most exciting match you refereed?

Juan Antonio: It’s difficult to choose one match as the most exciting. I remember some of the Real Madrid-Barcelona matches, for example the first one I ever refereed. The atmosphere was incredible in the stadium. But really its impossible to pick just one – there have been so many.

Interviewer: Who was the best player you ever saw?

Juan Antonio: During my career there have been many great players, like Johan Cruyff and Diego Maradona. It’s very difficult to say who was the best but there is one player who stands out for me, not just for being a great footballer but also for being a great human being and that was the Brazilian international Mauro Silva, who used to play here in Spain, for Deportivo La Coruna.

Interviewer: What was the worst experience you ever had as a referee?

Juan Antonio: The worst? Well, that was something that happened very early in my career. I was only 16 and I was refereeing a match in a town in Spain and the home team lost. After the match, I was attacked and injured by the players of the home team and by the spectators.

 

T.3 Injuries on holidays

A = Anna, D = Dan

A: How was your holiday? You went mountain biking in Austria,didn't you?

D: That's right. It was great, except for James's accident.

A: God! Why? What happened?

D: Well, we'd been cycling in the mountains round Kaunertal, and we were going back to the hotel down this steep road. James wentround this tight bend too fast and he went off the road into somebushes and fell off. It was horrible.

A: It sounds it! Was he badly hurt?

D: Well, we thought so. He kept saying he was OK, but you could see that his knee was really swollen. He also had quite a few cuts and bruises and was bleeding quite a bit. The problem was, though, wewere still miles from the next village.

A: So what happened? How did you get him to a hospital?

D: Well, luckily, we were actually on a road and a car came past a minute or two later. It stopped and the woman driving offered to take James to the nearest hospital. He kept saying he'd be OK, but she insisted on taking him and in the end we persuaded him to go -just to be safe. We got him into the car-and she took my mobile number and she promised to call me once there was more news.

A: Wow! That was nice,

D: I know. It was really kind of her. Anyway, we then cycled back to our hotel and waited to hear from them.

A: And did they call?

D: Yeah, they did! After a couple of hours, they rang and told me they'd given James an X-ray and there was nothing broken. They said he needed to stay there a bit longer, though, as he was waiting to have a few stitches in the cuts.

A: Oh, poor guy!

D: Yeah, I know. In the end, he spent the rest of the holiday hanging around the hotel. He was desperate to go out with us, but the doctors told him not to cycle for a week and rest the knee. It spoilt his holiday really.

A: I bet!

D: And on top of all that, I spoke to him yesterday and he said he's going to have to buy a new bike now because of the accident. He's found out the bike frame's broken.

A: Ouch! That actually reminds me of something that happened to some friends of mine when they went camping in Croatia.