Retirement???

[Beachy]

I do so envy the standard "Grandad" that you see on the TV adverts with their knitted cardigans and mint candy in the pocket for the grandchildren, I have never stopped working yet!! I have "Retired about 5 times from different jobs but soon get the urge to DO something apart from sitting in front of the old Aviosaurus, I have about 10 weddings booked for this year, ( 9 more than I want!) and I have just signed up for four days a week working at the local Theme Park called "Thorpe Park" one of the biggest in the country! I am driving the little train that goes around the park! (Yeh, I get paid for it as well!!) I have also trained on "Tidal wave" loggers leap, and a roller coaster call "Flying Fish"!!
I am the oldest employee on the Park! and I love it, Its like a stage to me, I can do all my old jokes and asides to a captive audience, and I had THREE commendations from the public saying how much they enjoyed the "Old Chap" and his humour...Fame at last. But it has taken its toll...I feel Knackered (do you say that in USA?) I am seventy in about 5 weeks
and as happy as a sandboy...I may retire again at the end of the season, then its Father Xmas time again! and so on and so on.. Beachy

[PaulBusta]

Sounds like your having fun Beachy but what's "Knackered" and "sandboy".

[Beachy]

Sorry..Roughly translated "Knackered" means Bushed, weak,without strength. and "Happy as a Sandboy" I thought was Universal, But it just means happy like a child i suppose??
Your lucky i dont drop into my london slang then you would be puzzled. Arf a Mo! I must get up the old Apples and have forty before the old trouble and strife comes down the frog, or I'll be for the 'igh jump!!.T T F N...? beachy

[PaulBusta]

SAY WHAT!

[ChrisStone]

I got the ta ta for now part but thats about it.

[PaulBusta]

That's about it for me too Chris.

[Beachy]

Translation.... Half a moment! I must go Upstairs, and have a sleep before the wife comes down the road, or I shall be in trouble Ta Ta For Now.
Cockney rhyming slang ie Apples and pears = stairs
trouble and strife = Wife
Forty Winks = sleep
Frog and toad ....= road
Dont ask me why. My dad was a London Taxi driver and used it a lot.
"Cor blimey, is that the time, must make myself scarce"....John

[CliffHawkins]

Thanks for the translation.

Cliff

Cor blimey?

[TomHajewski]

Can we get college credit for studying a foreign language when communicating with Beachy?

[ChrisStone]

Cor Blimey

Meaning
An exclamation of surprise.

Origin
A euphemism (specifically a minced oath) derived from 'God blind me'.
First recorded in print in Barrère and Leland's A dictionary of slang, jargon and cant 1888–90, 1897.
An alternative spelling was used, slightly earlier, by Arthur Morrison in A child of the Jago, 1896:
"Gawblimy, not what?"
It is also sometimes spelled gorblimey.