Hum Dilly La

My Dear Fellow,

I've noted that when I refer to our upcoming emigration, I often to refer to NZ as "over yonder". It took me a while to realise where I got that from.

It is from the ex Mrs. O's father. He was a Scunthorpe man, very down to earth in his speech and he worked for years in Saudi Arabia. But he never called it by name. It was always "over yonder". Or in his Scunny accent, "ovver yonder".

I wonder if it was because it made Saudi seem not quite so far away. Almost as if it were not another country, but just another county. Maybe that's how he saw it, like Saudi was squished somewhere between Lincolnshire and Derbyshire.

But it's not as if ex Father-In-Law was untouched by his time abroad. He often dropped Arabic phrases into the conversation. For example, insha'Allah, which I believe means "if god wills it". And Al-ḥamdu lillāh which is "praise god" or something like that.

Of course, in his Northern accent I doubt it would have been recognisable to most Saudis. "Our plane will come in from ovver yonder at about 10 o'clock enshaller," he'd say. "So we'll catch up with you then hum dilly la."

The more I think about it, the more I like "over yonder". It's like we're only "over yonder" hill and if we were just to climb to the top we could see you on the other side. Hum dilly la.

Yes, I think I'm going to have to adopt the usage of those phrases. No-one will have any idea what I'm talking about but "ploo sah shange" as they say in Scunthorpe.

Parsones