A pint of wallop! (Just for fun).

We used to tease my lovely Dad mercilessly. He once saw an old school friend in our home town many many years ago and uttered the phrase, “by Jove, it’s Harry Bealey.” He never lived it down and was used routinely by the whole family to denote surprise. Lovely days ?

My aunty was.always "going to see a man about a dog".

When we were children, if we dropped something my gran would say 'you've got hands like feet'. I still say that to myself if I'm clumsy.

Dad called clothes hangers 'shoulder sticks' and the loft or attic a 'cock loft'. Language eh?

If my Mum had had enough playing with my children she would say she had "a bone in her leg". It took them a good few years to realise that every one had bones in their legs.

My Dad always used to say, "Just off to see a man about a dog..." as he went out the front door in the evening. When I was little, I lived in hope that he would return with a puppy in a box...

As I grew older, I realised that he always returned stinking of beer and fags....

"If you had another brain it'd be lonely " was one we used to use for someone doing something silly. "As daft as a brush" is another one.

When we enquired what was for tea my dad would pipe up, a scabie horse between two mouldy mattresses ? luckily he was always wrong

I say “up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire “. Itt used to confuse my kids and now my Grandkids….. as they all …in their turn have shouted…..”but we live in Bedfordshire”. They’ve all spent ages when little ‘looking’ for a wooden hill when out in the cars!!!

"You're a good act but you're on too long" - my Dad when I was practising at home for a school play or concert.

Such a lot of these I still use today!!

As a pub landlady I was always amused when a local lady would head to the Ladies saying “ I’m just going to shake my lettuce”, I’d never heard it before or since.

So many of these! One my husband used that he got from his father, was; "a rasher of wind and a fried snowball" to mean nothing at all. I've never heard anyone else use it.

An elegant sufficiency was a phrase used by a maiden aunt of mine. I repeated it one day at the dinner table and the following day my young daughter, when asked if she had had enough of something informed me she had "had elephants and fish for tea". Its a standard joke in the family now.

My Mum took the 'elegant sufficiency' one step further, her phrase when asked if she would like a second helping of something was 'no thank you, I've had elegant sufficiency of that nutritious element!' Always used to make us laugh.

If I asked my grandmother where she was going she would say ‘there and back to see how far it is, if it's too far then I’m not going.’

Off to the office
When my dad was putting a bet on at the local betting office
Were you born in a barn - if you left the door open

When my Grandma was asked what was for dinner it was always 'chairlegs and mangle handles'
Dad, when spotting anyone he thought looked like 'mutton dressed like lamb' would say 'the sights you see when you haven't got your gun!'
Elegant sufficiency was always 'elephant sufficiency' after my childish interpretation.
'You can boil a kettle on that' - when found pouting or, 'if the wind blows your face will stay like that' when frowning or making a miserable face.

Did you know this was a saying from miners who put the wood in the hole to block the seam of coal they were working on
I believe

As soon as we set off for our holiday my dad would say 'I think I can smell the sea'
if you asked him the time he'd look at his watch and say 'half past cheese and a bread knife' no idea what that meant.
mum would say when shopping 'what we haven't got now we'll do wi'out'
if she wanted a treat to eat, 'I fancy something nice and not common'
ahh I do miss my mum and dad

When Mum was unsure what she could rustle up for tea during rationing, she would tell me I had "a buttered brick and a worm" coming to my plate. It never did, she always found something!

'Hang the expense - give the cat another canary' when in doubt about whether to buy things or not.

"Born in a field with the gate left open" was said in the Glasgow area of those who left doors open.

Wud ye look at that? said in a disaproving tone of voice by a grown-up seeing a child doing something naughty, or another grown-up (usually female) "All dressed up like a dog's dinner"

If we stood in the way , ie in front of the TV, my dad would say ‘you make a better door than a window ‘ meaning I can’t see through you .

Our phrase was 'ample sufficiency' to mean eaten enough - we clearly weren't elegant!
Couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding - for someone considered weedy or a weakling.
Off swinging her handbag - was a phrase my dad used to describe a female neighbour dressed up and heading off to the bright lights of town (though clearly he suspected her motives for going....)
Like gnat's pee - to describe weak tea.