We came home the other day to find a parcel had turned up. The driver had left it on the doorstep right in front of the front door.
Inside the door, we found a little card that the driver had pushed through the letterbox.
It said they had left the parcel in the safe location “front step”. Then, further down, it asked how do I get my parcel?
In answer, it said they would return to deliver it tomorrow. So we left it on the step until the next day. But the next day the driver didn’t come back and they didn’t deliver our parcel.
The next suggestion was that we go to www.yodel.co.uk to choose a new delivery date or arrange to collect it from a depot. When we visited the website it asked for the parcel number, but the parcel number was not on the card.
In desperation, we called the Yodel hotline and explained that the card didn’t tell us the parcel number. The operator asked for our postcode instead. We gave them our postcode. They said the parcel had been delivered. We explained what had been written on the card and that we were following their instructions to get it.
At this point the penny dropped. We didn’t need to arrange a delivery, said the operator. We just needed to collect it. So we went back out to the doorstep to collect our parcel, bringing the Yodel card, one item of photographic ID and a utility bill to prove our name and address. Now we have our parcel.
We opened it. Everything inside was wet from the rain overnight. We’re sending it back.
Until that happens though, let’s have a sift through the wonders of this year. Let’s take a skiffle at the best of the best (so far) when it comes to the efforts of trying to come up with a brand new expression or phrase to add to the world.
What has happened so far? Where have you been? You’ve missed so much. Based on viewer feedback and extensive focus group research, these are the greatest of the gold:
Cough it up, wank bread
Out of the way, grandad, I’ve got bitches to feed
Control Alt Discreet!
May angels lead you in and devils drag you out again
Fox me up, fox me RIGHT up
Leave the beef on the bench
March was the most successful month coming up with a whopping three contenders.
There’s also the added bonus that Kev said THE THING and now it’s his thing because he says it all the time, and we wouldn’t want to upset the lad by telling him he has to give it back. No no, it’s much better to still leave it in the running with a bit of a caveat on the side.
With so much choice, we’re all eating good this season. Let me know if any others take your fancy and whether you’ve started crimsonly using them in polite conversation.
A football, which is 8cm in diameter and made of foam, so cannot be used to play football
A basketball, which is 8cm in diameter and made of foam, so cannot be used to play basketball
A tennis ball, which is 8cm in diameter and made of foam, so can be used to play tennis if you don’t mind the ball not bouncing or travelling far enough because it has the wrong weight and ballistic properties
A baseball, which is 8cm in diameter and made of foam, so cannot be used to play baseball
Recently we got a new treadmill thing, which allows you to go for a walk inside your house. This is useful for exercise and also for avoiding scenery if the natural world is disgusting to you.
I took a look at the instructions to see if there was any important information there that wasn’t immediately obvious when looking at the four-button control panel (on, off, faster, slower). It told me some vital information about the dimensions and operating parameters of the machine.
And then, at the bottom, it told me something else.
I don’t know what it’s going to do to me. I don’t know what its plan is.
You know I swan up with very little fanfare and whip out a couple of blinders. It’s only a matter of time before we go global and, I don’t know, Margot Robbie is having afternoon tea with Timothy Shallamoose and they’re saying our catchphrases between the sandwich and cake course.
Let’s whip up a storm:
Shat in a pampers! – it feels good saying it out loud. Try it the next time you accidentally hit your thumb with a hammer
You get the lentils, I’ll get the bleach – always use responsibly, to check if someone is actually listening to you
Park it where I can see it – possible sitcom zinger, used by sitcom mum to keep sitcom kids in check
Claw ’em, core ’em, floor ’em – a personal phrase from the one and only Tad Kensington. It’d take too long to explain it (so see below*)
Put your potatoes away, I’m not interested – it depends on the context
Now that we’re almost halfway through the year, next month will be a ‘best of the best’ showcasing all the gold we’ve dug up so far.
I personally can’t wait.
(*When you really want the razzle dazzle for that big presentation, you have to prove to people that you’re really willing to go that extra mile. First up is the clawing, getting your nails into them, showing them who’s boss and that you won’t let go without a fight. Second up is core ’em, strip them bare right down to their very being. Not to humiliate but to unearth what the person really wants. To get right to it and understand what’s going on. Once you’re there, take to the stage to bring it home. Floor them, floor them all so you’ll walk away with a smile and your commission several times over).
You might think you know how to speak the language of Great Blighty, but just because you picked it up as a child doesn’t mean you’ve fully grasped its intricacies. Thankfully the internet is full of helpful advice for those trying to master British English, and in this post I’m going to round up some of the key findings for you.
Food
Every guide seems to begin with food words. In Britain, eggplants are called aubergines and zucchini are called courgettes. Then we have some more useful translations from YMT Vacations:
Word
Translation into British
Chips
Crisps
Beer
Jar
Cheetos
Puff snacks
Doritos
Doritos
Slices of cured ham
Rashers
Vogue add that flapjacks are “not pancakes”, though they have no information about what flapjacks actually are.
Nouns
What do you call that thing? If you want to avoid just pointing at something, you need to know its name. Thankfully Vogue knows a lot more about what things are called.
Word
Translation into British
Toilet
Loo
Elevator
Lift
Uniform
Kit
Pregnancy
Up the Duff
Quintain Living helpfully throw in some more common nouns that you might require. Don’t make the mistake of using the words on the left if you want to avoid being laughed at.
Word
Translation into British
Kiss
Snog
Man
Bloke
Toilet paper
Bog roll
Police officer
Rozzer
On that final point, YMT Vacations also helpfully share their understanding that the common British term for a police car is “jam sandwich”.
Idioms and phrases
If you really want to speak like a native Britisher, you should sprinkle some common Brit-sayings into your conversation to convince the locals that you too are from Fair Albion’s green and pleasant shores. Vogue have soaked up the culture and offer the following extensive list.
Word
Translation into British
Weird
Dodgy
Cray
Bonkers
Gross
Gammy
Ugly
Butters
Dating
Courting
YMT Vacations don’t know many common phrases, but they do know that if the weather is bad you should say it’s “blowing a hooley”.
We will give the last word to Quintain Living, though, who recommend avoiding the heavily Americanised phrase “go away”. Instead you should tell British people to “sod off”.
With all this advice you should have no trouble fitting in to British society and you’ll be the King of Downton Abbey in no time. Pip pip!