That’s where I learned what a ‘vindaloo’ is! We may be in a bit of a minority here w/ loving Red Dwarf, but Cat is a scream.
Spent most of my formative years in the UK. We returned to the States for a three-year stint just as I was starting school. Little Black kid with a Norfolk accent, in the Florida panhandle. Anyway, School Registrar lady asks me if I speak any languages aside from English. Not missing a beat, I reply and say, “Well, I know American a little as well.”
Favorite story at the Hollow House.
I tend to “write” in a British way more than talk. It’s a little pretentious to throw exotic words around that no-one uses. That’s how I feel about “wanker.” I’ve heard far more Americans use the word that Brits. I hear “tosser” far more often.
Fave words and phrases I use regardless, because I grew up using 'em:
ace/top/brill(iant)
twat
dual carriageway
pram
lav/lavvy
blummin’ (“bloody” would have earned you a clip 'round the earhole in the Hollow House)
Gordon Bennett! (to express shock)
Whilst (rather than “while”)
aluminium (Grandpa worked for Alcoa in Jamaica and I can’t pronounce it the U.S. way)
clingfilm (instead of saran or plastic wrap)
can’t be arsed
sod
naff
Most of my swearing is British. Pissed/legless for drunk. A good bollocking or thumping for a fight. Of course the ubiquitous “cunt” comes in handy - but I can only use it in this swearing respect. “Daft cunt” when someone cuts me off it traffic, but I’d never use it in the more… anatomical definition commonly used in the U.S.
[slight hijack] I am a huge fan of British comedy, especially sketch stuff (not the shit like Benny Hill, but cool stuff like The Fast Show). Brit friends of mine said, "Get Bo Selecta, you’ll laugh your ass (arse?) off. It is the biggest load of cack I’ve ever seen. Uh, the Michael Jackson impression? Doesn’t look anything, act anything, sound anything like the actual person. I forced myself to watch the whole series DVD and I want that time in my life back. Got the Harry Enfield DVD and was much happier…[/slight hijack]
Spoken like a true Protestant!
oh, and I still call TP “bogroll.”
Go on, spill the beans, you euphemism-loving Mutts. What other expressions are used for toilet paper. I’ve heard of toilet tissue. Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this, though. Just gotta be more invented by the marketing types.
I say “sheisse” too, probably because I’m forced to watch Commissar Rex whenever it’s on the telly.
Speaking of which, I came across the relevatory phrases “crappy witless bint” and “sod you then” after watching Men Behaving Badly.
roger, to answer your question, I’m the only Australian-born member of my family, so culturally I’m sort of Anglo-Australian-Indian, or something.
My meaning was that, in reference to your writing that you say “garridge” as often as “garage”, I was surprised that as an Anglo-Indian you would say “garage” at all.
My speech is fairly loaded with britishisms. Too much BBC packed into my skull.
Sometimes I’m a bit self-conscious about it – like last week when I closed an interview with an extremely English fellow with “Good day.” (Despite Bob & Doug, it’s not something that’s really said around these parts.)
As soon as it passed my lips, I felt like a complete prat because I was sure he must’ve thought I was taking the piss.
Ah well.
Bloody hell
bugger off
that’s as may be
And i go on holiday, not vacation. Also colour is the proper way to spell the word, just like neighbour 
. One of my favourites is a phrase i picked up from my Irish Mum, used when someone mumbles an insincere apology. “Sorry don’t feed the bulldog!”
Yeah, Bo Selecta was rubbish. If you’re a Harry Enfield fan, have you tried The League of Gentlemen?
That’s another specifically northern expression, I think.
It’s not something I heard a lot in my 28 consecutive years in England, nor on trips back since then. I have heard it, or so I fancy, in sitcoms (which tend to be shall we say better as indicators of the writers’ predilections and prejudices than as a snapshot of usage at any given time! Think the execrable Hyacinth Bouquet in Keeping Up Appearances.)
Aussie “Gooday”, yeah, mate. But “Good day to you, sir”? Doesn’t sound fair dinkum to me.
If I could go off-topic a bit here and run this by those that know, if I wanted to visit somewhere and find people who actually sound like they do on Coronation Street, where would I go in the North?
Sorry for the hijack.
Lancashire.
Corrie’s set in north Manchester (historically part of Lancashire), but like all British soaps it presents a stereotype of a city which is decades out of date. Young Mancunians don’t sound anything like they do on the programme - you need to get north of the city to find those that do. (I think Angua’s from that part of the world, so perhaps you want to speak to her 
.)
Some of the Coronation Street characters speak with proper Mancunian accents - Kevin “Shave the back of your neck, please” Webster, Our Ashley (who says stuff like “tittle” for “tickle”, like Percy Sugden used to) and the gorgeous Mari-oh Sutherland spring to mind.
But others are from further afield in Greater Manchester/Lancashire. You can tell these from the very broad R’s or, in the cases of Janice Battersby and Fred Elliott, the broad arse. I think Janice is probably from somewhere like Rochdale.
[I always wondered where Fred got his catch phrase (“It’s a lovely day, Audrey, I say, it’s a lovely day”): I originally though of Foghorn Leghorn but then decided it was from the old Salford comedian (and pork-butcher) Al Read. Is it a particularly Salfordian thing, I wonder?]
God alone knows where our Audrey’s accent is from. The actress is in fact extremely posh - her father is a gen-u-ine Lord (Lord Harmer Nicholls) but her “Brummie” accent in Crossroads was equally astray.
I call fire “hot cockalorum” and water “pondalorum”.
I call a cat a “white face simminy” and I call pants, “squibs and crackers”.
Just like the British.
Oh, “our so-and-so” is just as common in the North East (though, or course, “our” is often replaced by “wor” 
). You’ll sometimes hear first person singular and third person variations as well: “my Trevor,” “their Barry,” “his Carol” etc.
The actor who plays Fred Elliot does not have strong northern accent at all. If you hear him out of character he sounds a bit like Brian Blessed with quite a “posh” theatrical voice.
The same goes for Jean Alexander who played Hilda Ogden. She has a very high class voice in real life.
Now I think about it, ‘our so-and-so’ is also Brummie, isn’t it? Maybe it’s just used everywhere except the south-east
I use G’day as a greeting sometimes, but as a pilot I use it more often as a good-bye. Example:
Me (leaving Class C airspace): Helicopter Zero-Sierra-Mike, clear to the west.
Tower: Zero-Sierra-Mike, frequency change approved. G’day.
Me: Zero-Sierra-Mike, G’day.
I use:
arsed (can’t be arsed…)
bugger
chuffed
been (pronounced like “bean” instead of “bin”)
cheers
love (as in calling people “love”)
lovely (use of this is NOT common where I live for some reason)
git
bint
piss off