Quote:
carrier bag
go pear shaped
beans on toast
posh toddy
cotton wool? what is this?
What's up with Essex? The guys on there seemed to have a bit of an attitude about it.
Ooh I love these, being a former student of English Lang. And also having lvied in the US and been stumped by their words, too, so know how you feel.
First of all *Inter alia* is simply Latin for *between all* (everyone). So a letter/email you copy to everyone involved - goes inter alia.
Go pear shaped is go wrong.
Beans on toast is a British delicacy - baked beans on toast. (Canned beans but they're not at all like the ones you have in the US - your's are brown things, right?) I'm guessing Gordon would use it as an example of really crap food that even a moron could make.
Posh toddy - you'll have misheard him. Posh totty - means a posh sort of tarty woman, usually youngish. Quite derogatory.
Cotton wool is those fluffy balls of cotton in the tops of tablet bottles. Forget what you call them... lint?
As for Essex - it's a bit of a joke nationally. County to the East of London. Many Brits think of Essex girls as wearing no tights and white stilettos, being over made-up, and..er...thick. Essex Boys are football hooligans - have backwards baseball caps, type thing and again, a bit thick. Wear lots of bling bling and tacky designer clothes like Burberry. And fancy themselves. My ex was an Essex boy - and it's all true.