Floating down to Camelot

I've always thought that "see you later!" was something that could only be said to someone you were expecting to see later that day. "See you tomorrow!" and "See you next week!" or a vague, "well, um, see you again, um... well, sometime," were available for other occasions, as were more generally applicable things such as "Bye!" and "See you!"

However, this has led to exchanges such as this. Colleague leaves in the afternoon to go to a meeting elsewhere. "See you later!" colleague says. "Oh, are you coming back?" I say. "No," says colleague. This has happened so often, and with so many people, that I am now wondering if I have been wrong all these years. At the end of our weekly dance practice, loads of people say "see you later!" to everyone as they leave, although they know these people won't be seen again for a week. Maybe I am the only person who interprets "see you later" in the way that I do.

So who do you agree with? Me, or (almost) everyone else I know?

When you were a child, what was the main method you used to decide who was "it" in a game? Just curious...

(Will add mine when not typing laboriously on a phone.)

Discussion on pikelets and crumpets has inspired to me to ask some further questions about food. This one's more international, I think:

( Food questions )

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?

I've been quiet lately. Blame being in the closing stages of a long fic (just finished ten minutes ago!) and discovering forums...

I had a debate with my parents at Christmas, and another one with people at work today, about when one says "up" or "down" with respect to directions - e.g. "I'm going down/up to town." "I'm just popping up/down the road for five minutes." "Go down/up the road for 100 yards, then turn left." We have concluded very little logic to it.

I think that a strong physical slope trumps other considerations on the small scale. From our house, it's a steep hill down all the way into the centre of Cowes, so of course we'd talk about going "down to Cowes." ("Daahn Caahz" is the local way of saying this.) If your road is slopey, I suspect "popping up the road" and "popping down the road" would have clear and distinct meanings. In the absence of a slope, it seems to be personal preference. Some people say they would always say "up", others would always say "down", and others opt out and say they'd say "along."

I think that a clear and obvious north-south thing trumps other considerations on the large scale. I'd say "we're going up to Newcastle" or "we're going up to Scotland." Once there, I'd probably talk about going "back down to the island". Would I use "up" and "down" if talking about going from Cornwall to Kent...?

North is "up north" and south is "down south", of course. But one always goes up to Oxford... which is in the south. Presumably Oxford is on the top of a very tall and thin pillar, so it's even more "up" than the north, despite being in the south.

I wonder if Americans see this differently from British people, what with the whole "downtown" thing. (My Dad knew an American who'd arrived at Cheltenham railway station - rather out of the town centre - who got taken by a bus driver in totally the wrong direction, due to said American and the bus driver having totally opposite interpretations of what "downtown" was.) Hmm... American towns are like funnels, that go down towards the centre. British towns must be like cones, with the centre at the top.