Everybody loves a cliché. There seems to be one for every occasion; some words of wisdom that convey a message or moral. Given my love for words, as well as for the  silly and unusual, I thought I would have a look at a few of my favourites.

• All that glitters is not gold. Now I love a bit of sparkle, and like to wear a bit of bling when I am not at work, and yes it is real gold (I prefer the white variety though). However I also like sparkly nail varnishes and eye shadow as well. Glittery hair clips and sequined tops are very pretty also. I don’t think they would have quite the appeal if they were made of real gold though, Not only would I be scared to go out of the door wearing a fortune, but it would be bloody heavy to carry it around!
• Don’t get your knickers in a twist. This one is quite amusing, I do get myself agitated at times but it is not because my knickers are all twisted up. Having said that, I remember once putting them on side-ways on! I don’t quite know how I managed that, but I was not very comfy.
• They must have hit every branch falling out of the ugly tree. This is pretty cruel as people can’t help the way they look. Just recently Mr Grump was told by a colleague that his new boss was not blessed in the looks department, and this cliché was used. He did confirm it to be true when he actually met her, but he doesn’t care about that. The fact that she is doing a great job and is a lovely person is what matters to him.
• Tickled pink. This expression conveys delight and happiness however not for me it doesn’t. Well not in the literal sense anyway. I HATE being tickled. It just makes me squirm and cringe as I find it extremely unpleasant. I might have mentioned before that I hate feet as well. If my feet are tickled I will kick out! So this expression of being ‘tickled pink’ for me would have to be changed to ‘tickled purple’ and it would be used to convey rage not happiness!
• The cat’s whiskers or my personal favourite, the dog’s bollocks. These mean the same thing which is to be envied or admired. You know when you have a snazzy new outfit and you think you are ‘the cat’s whiskers.’ Or perhaps a bloke has got some new Playstation game of something, which his mates think is the ‘dog’s bollocks.’ God knows where these expressions come from but I do not see what is so wonderful about some facial hair or testicles for that matter, maybe we should combine the two to get ‘hairy bollocks’ or something? Nope! That doesn’t cut it either!

I think clichés are under-appreciated really. We are all told to be original and not to use them, but perhaps if we dig out some of the lesser-used ones and give the, an airing once more, it will brighten things up a bit!