Dialect part 2

[ladyofastolat]

When someone was restless and dithering, going constantly in and out of a room, my Mum (born and brought up in Derby) and her Mum (born and brought up Alsager, Cheshire, but with parents both from Rugby, Warwickshire) would say, "They were in and out like a cat at a fair." I've never heard this anywhere else, and Google doesn't help. Anyone else heard this?

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I don't know that one, but I had a gf whose Black Country mother rebuked fidgeters with "Stop otching!" I've not come across "otch" elsewhere, before or since.

Actually, your expression reminds me of a line from The Dukes of Hazzard, though possibly not original to it: "Busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

My mother said 'dog at a fair'.

A friend of mine insists on saying 'in and out like a yo-yo', which drives me nuts.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

My mum always used "dog at a fair&quoy; FWIW.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

No, but I have heard reference to 'up and down like a sailor's trousers'. I am not sure if the sailor in question is randy, or simply has been eating too much foreign food.

In a not very related vein, my father used to refer to seagulls as Shytehawks...