I like

'face like a bulldog chewing a wasp'

or

'face like a bulldog sucking a lemon'.

Turned out nice again...

Ticketyboo!

bollocks

"feelin' a bit peckish"

"a complete tosser"

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/141/dictionary.jsp

Please tell me that nobody has actually said "ticketty boo" for long, long time.

" Awwwww, shut it ! "

"Just leave it..he's not worf it"

It seems that, as I'd thought, "stone the crows" originated in Australia (www.phrases.org.uk/meaning/).

You can add "...and starve the flamin' lizards!" for further emphasis.

Although "flat out" (working, running etc. at top speed) isn't Australian, "flat out like a lizard drinking" is. A few years ago, while visiting Vietnam, I was intrigued to find that it had turned up in this unlikely spot. At one point our guide was handing around photos from his busy wedding and remarked "It took three days. Me and Chi, we were frat out, like lizard drinking".

On the subject of being over-stretched, an English friend of mine likes to use the phrase "As busy as a one-armed paperhanger in a gale".

I found a variant of this a few years ago at a local hardware store while trying to get the attention of an overworked staff member in the timber section. "Flat out, then?" I asked. "Mate, I'm as busy as a one-armed brickie in Baghdad!" he replied.

My English friend also likes to indicate thirst with a local saying: "Jeez, I'm as dry as a Pommy's bathmat!"

Bert saying to Alice (on 'Mulberry') after Alice has come up with a surprisingly bright idea :

" You know I fink you may hold water, Alice. "

Alice, wistfully savouring her moment of glory :

" Ah know I do. "

TTFN

Neil Oz,
My English friend also likes to indicate thirst with a local saying: "Jeez, I'm as dry as a Pommy's bathmat!"

"Don't come the raw prawn" or you can go and "shove yer head up a dead bear's bum"

Regards.

I'd forgotten that one, hooameye. Probably because you don't hear it much any more (in the city, anyway).

'Don't come the raw prawn with me': 'to attempt to deceive (a person); to misrepresent a situation'.

I've read through all of these replies and many are wonderful. But no one has yet mentioned my favorite expression -- perhaps because its origins are obscure; perhaps because it is so rarely used anymore.

The expression: "There's no charge for that."

VirginiaC


I think you mean "On the house?" :-)

"If you can see the Pennines, it's going to rain. If you can't see them, then it is raining."

A Manchester saying.

My English friend also likes to indicate thirst with a local saying: "Jeez, I'm as dry as a Pommy's bathmat!"

I'm surprised that he doesn't say "I'm sweating like an Aussie in an IQ test!"

I like "sweating like a pregnant nun"

I have heard Darren Bent described as having "the first touch of a rapist" which while tasteless is undoubtedly true.

On the subject of sweating I must admit to using the phrase 'sweating buckets' quite a lot (with a yorkshire twang).