On 9 Dec 2019 at 4:05, Alex Goodwin wrote:

> "Can't you book a flight?"
>
> "Umm... to what airport?  And I still have to take all my tools and
> parts - that's about a tonne of stuff - with me. If you want me to
> take off tomorrow, I'll be travelling and working over the weekend -
> you'll have to talk to the boss and get his ok."
>
> "You just said you weren't flying"

"Take off" does have the meaning she used in much of the Us. The
American must have been the equivalent of an "upper class twit" to
not be familiar with that usage.

Or he just was still focused oon flying and wasn't paying attention.

> After doing the professionally-needed stuff, she was chatting with the
> guy on the other end and mentioned she had had to chuck some thongs on
> before jumping out of the ute - she later reckoned she could _hear_
> the poor sod blush.  As sis later put it, "That's when I found out
> that I was talking South West Pacific English about footwear and the
> poor bloke on the other end was listening in North East Pacific
> English about undies."

"Thong *did* refer to that sort of footwear when I was a kid. These
days, the usage seems to have vanished. "Flip-Flops" is more normal.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com