Wagging

My Dear Fellow,

Poor Er Indoors must have slept about 14 or 15 hours last night. She had a very hard work day on Wednesday, staying up until about 4.30am before getting up at 7.30 for work on Thursday.

As a result, it was b&w movie night last night as she sloped off to bed early. I tried out Franchot Tone in "Phantom Lady" and then David Niven in "Raffles". Neither film really stood out for me, although I do love Olivia De Havilland in anything. Er Indoors slept very late and I was halfway through "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" this morning when Er Indoors finally emerged. 

"I feel like I'm wagging," she said.

Before you get a very bizarre mental picture in your head I should explain that "wagging" is one of those funny Kiwi terms. They have a few. 

Another is "dobbing" which is to tell on someone. Someone who tells is a "dobber" or in exceptionally shameful circumstances, a "dibber-dobber". It's sort of like the equivalent of the American "squealer" or "rat". I have to admit, it sounds more dramatic in the American idiom. 

JAMES CAGNEY: You, you dirty rat!

As opposed to:

KIWI JAMES CAGNEY: You, you dirty dibber-dobber!

It just doesn't have the same gravitasse. Dibber-dobber sounds like a gardening implement or a euphemism for something.

TEACHER: We had to put Jimmy on the naughty step for showing his dibber-dobber to the girls for five pence a look.

I've drifted off-topic again. "Wagging" is the same as skiving or ducking work. I kind of know what Er Indoors means. Here we are in jarmies at 4 in the afternoon watching "Dangerous Liaisons" on the telly and eating crisps. Punky is getting into the spirit by rolling on the rug and showing us his tum. Ordinarily I'm chairing a rubbish meeting at about this time of day, so this feels very extravagant.

But, it's a legal wag. We three are allowed to wag today, and no-one can dob us in. 

Listen to me, I'm like a native already.

Parsones