I grew up listening to my grandma say that all the time.
Even though she was Swedish, she was married to a Norwegian.
No one I know speaks Norwegian
any more, but uff da survives.
Tom,a whole week in London! That could be enough to corrupt you for life, especially in East London.
Crikey and Lord luv a duck are very common. Cor blimey is as well. It means God blind me. Many words used in rhyme may sound bad, but are quite innocent.
Guess this one: I'll write you a goose's for the burton, me china.
I know there's such a thing as rhyming slang, but know only a couple of expressions.
I first heard of it 35 years ago while interviewing a professor at a nearby university, who was a Cockney.
He taught me "tit for tat--your hat."
That's the extent of my vocabulary.
Now, about the line you wrote, I confess that I cheated and looked some of it up online.
The translation I came up with is,
I'll write you a goose's neck (check) for the richard burton (curtain), me (my) china plate (mate).
I would never have guessed without cheating.
To keep this on the subject, some of the rhyming slang is pretty racy.
Tom, when I was in Chicago at the university, I had a three-bedroom flat to myself. A young lady arrived for school, but had nowhere to stay. I said I would bed her for the night. She slapped my face and left. The next day she apologized. Another English bloke explained that I was just offering her a place to stay that night. Some of our language may seem vulgar, but it is not. Some is very vulgar, I admit.
Brits are masters at double entendre and this leads to false thoughts about our language, especially Cockney Rhyme.
Now before any of you get bent out of shape, Jim's last line is a perfectly innocent expression of encouragement.
However, in America, it does not translate very well, similar to Jim's bedding a lady school mate for the night.
I guarantee you, if I used any of those expressions at church in America, I'd be rebuked, big time.
But the 88-year-old matriarch of my wife's Brit host family would have thanked me.
My wife Janice related a story by the matriarch's daughter, whose American friend got offended when someone told her that to help her get to her destination on time, he would knock her up in the morning.
He meant, of course, he would knock on her door to wake her up.
Jim, you crack me up.
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about a plane crash.
I would tend to agree. It is ironic how I almost always agree with Web on every topic except the one we have both argued in more than half of the time on here.
I suspect that would be the case with many of us on here.