We all have local idioms and peculiarities of speech. We acquire these from the people around us. I remember once being verbally assailed on the soccer pitch and angrily asked what I thought I was doing.

‘I’m only here for the good of my health, and to wear my old clothes out’,

I answered - an expression I had picked up at home. It was enough to disarm my accuser!

The Belfast lads living with us brought with them the local expressions of the area they grew up in. Teddy, the younger of the two brothers was asked

‘What ails your head?’

His reply brought my total astonishment.

‘I fell over a straw, a hen kicked me, and my belly is full of white mice.’

I stood agawp! Then I raced home like lightening to relate to my mum the remarkable sequence of unfortunate events that had befallen our guest!

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