'You're a dirty stop out!'

In 2003 and 2004 I completed a post graduate qualification in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and this raised my awareness of how everyday English is crammed full of phrases and terms which have meanings which bear little resemblance to the original meanings of the individual words.

One of my mother's favourite sayings was , 'You're a dirty stop out!' It's an Australian colloquial expression and must seem so strange to people who have English as their second language. It sounds quite derogatory but it is  used when someone is out (not home)  and for perhaps a bit longer than expected, and they have obviously been having a good time.  :-) It is usually said in jest .

If my mother was still alive, she would be using this saying to me I'm sure! Last Thursday was a perfect example of this...
In the morning I went to my SIL's place for her annual Christmas lunch for her 'craft friends'. Since I've been retired I've been able to go to this event :-) Last year  I wrote about how my SIL and BIL decorate their house in the most amazing way...it is so beautiful! My BIL has been away with work this year, so all the decorating was done by Mary.

The Christmas village ( in the b'ground of the photo) has had some new additions

 All the guests bring something for the meal. We are also expected to bring along some craft work for Show and Tell :-)

This is part of the Show and tell

 I stood to take the photo below, in the archway to the formal dining room, with a view towards the formal lounge room and on the right of the photo is the hallway...all beautifully decorated.

This photo is a bit blurry but shows some of the figures/ St Nicholas / Santas that Mary has collected

The stairs to the next level are always decorated for Christmas...

 Below are some of the wallhangings made by my SIL

Beside our plates was a cello package with these 2 lovely decorations that Mary made for each of us.

After lunching I then headed off to a coffee date with my former colleagues who meet once a month for coffee after school. It's a date I always try to keep. We go to Elixirs which is a coffee roasting business that branched out to have a cafe as well...very nice coffee :-)

I took this photo of my friend's iced coffee...what a big glass it is!  In Australia, iced coffee is made with chilled milk, a scoop of icecream in the bottom of the glass, topped with whipped cream and grated chocolate. (not like the iced coffee I had in NYC made on water and no icecream!)

Three of my former colleagues

This lady was my teaching partner for the last 2 years of my career; she misses me! lol

Desley who had that iced coffee and I pose for a photo...

 We had a lovely time catching up with each others news and travel plans for the long school holidays of some of my friends. Then it was time to head into the peak hour traffic and head home to the next suburb!