General Chat

Down the galley on a plate!

Most rain is gentle and not like knives and forks or soldiers. We have a lot of gentle rain in South Wales. That is why the valleys are so green and our complexions are so lovely :-) :-)

Heavy rain, in our household, was described as Cats and dogs, like stair rods, or 'ammering down.

Something I don't hear very often now, but my grandma always used to say at bedtime "up the wooden hill."
It was years before I realise there was another bit to that line, as she never ever said the "....to Bedfordshire" bit. :-D

My granddad would always say "time for tiffin" when it was time for a cuppa and a biscuit mid-afternoon. I've never heard anyone else use that expression but I'm presuming he picked it up whilst in the Army during the war.


EDIT:
I've just realised my first sentence reads as though we had heavy rain in our household. Tut tut, what would my English teacher say!!! She was such a stickler for grammar and here's proof that I didn't listen properly.!

Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire,
Down Sheet Lane to Blanket Fair.

If we asked my mum where anything was, it was always 'anging on the 'ook in the 'all"

Up in Nannies room behind the wallpaper

well I'll go to the foot of our stairs

It's not a fit night out for man nor beast

good garden donuts

see you on the ice if it don't crack

Karen I think tiffin goes back to when the army were in India.

My Mum's saying when you kept asking where something was .... "Saw a wee doggie eating something" ...most annoying too when your trying to find something :-D

If someone was late for something it was....Aye well you know her/him like the coos tail ..aye behind :-D

Where are you going Mum?

Up in Annie Room!


He'd laugh to see a Pudding crawl!

He's steal your eyes and come back for the sockets!

Don't take me for a fool! What do you think I am? A pillgarlick?

[someone looking smart] He looks like a Pock Doctor's Clerk!


Just some of the little gems from an Islington family!!!

Someone who waffles - they are going round the Wrekin.

Someone with a smart house with net curtains - she is Queen Anne in front, Mary Ann behind.

One with a bad reputation locally - she is only as good as she ought to be.
:-)

When the sky has dark clouds " It's looking black over Bills' mothers.

Whats for tea Nan??

She would reply

If it

If it what?

If it goes round the table you will get a bit

Used to drive me round the flippin bend!!! :-)

if someone had bandy leg's my grandmother would say,

he would never stop a pig in a ginnel.

a ginnel is a alley between two row's of houses.

if someone was quick to answer with a attitude we used to say don't be so fly.

Ah, took a while, but have found where I posted that saying before:

http://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards/board/general_chat/thread/1156471

raining cats and dogs




•Odin, the Norse god of storms, was often pictured with dogs and wolves, which were symbols of wind. Witches, who supposedly rode their brooms during storms, were often pictured with black cats, which became signs of heavy rain for sailors. Therefore, “raining cats and dogs” may refer to a storm with wind (dogs) and heavy rain (cats).

•“Cats and dogs” may come from the Greek expression cata doxa, which means “contrary to experience or belief.” If it is raining cats and dogs, it is raining unusually or unbelievably hard.

•“Cats and dogs” may be a perversion of the now obsolete word catadupe. In old English, catadupe meant a cataract or waterfall. A version of catadupe existed in many old languages.In Latin, for example, catadupa. was borrowed from the classical Greek ?at?d??p??, which referred to the cataracts of the Nile River. So, to say it’s raining “cats and dogs” might be to say it’s raining waterfalls.
•A false theory stated that cats and dogs used to cuddle into thatch roofs during storms and then be washed out during heavy rains. However, a properly maintained thatch roof is naturally water resistant and slanted to allow water to run off. In order to slip off the roof, the animals would have to be lying on the outside—an unlikely place for an animal to seek shelter during a storm.

Oh she's a limmer.

my mother in law used to say "oh, he's a limb" which I gather meant "limb of the devil"

Old expressions that I can remember from childhood and still pass on even now are:-

Raining cats and dogs/ chucking it down...... black over Bills Mothers.

If we lost something it was usually found ..... Up in Annie's room.

If Mum was going our without us and we asked where she was going, her reply would be....... There and back to see how far it is!!

What's for tea?

Bread and pullet or pickled eels' feet and herrings eyebrows.