Throwing Ones Toys Out Of The Pram

To throw ones toys from the pram is an expression used to describe someone who has become so upset about something that they, in essence, become quite unreasonable.  Some people are more prone to hurling the toys than others and for some it is just particular instances.  In my case the toys barely leave my pram and only tend to get thrown out when I am driving or when someone is so pig headed and unreasonable that they cannot be reasoned with.  I happen to mention this phrase when I was chatting to An about something and she was quite amused, I think I was relating something about work but I forget now.  I probably said something like, such and such was not happy, he threw his toys out of his pram...  I think the thought of a tantrum and feet stamping session sprang to mind and in reality it is not far from the truth sometimes.

Of course you can apply this sarcastically to someone like myself when engaged in a debate.  It is a humorous way  wind someone up and to exaggerate their frustration to the point where they go in the huff and stomp off.  The huff is the same as sulking or feeling so annoyed that you refuse to even talk about it and you go off and stew in your grumpy mood.

In naval parlance you can say to someone who is getting a bit irate/excited ease to 5 or to exaggerate ease to 20.  These phrases come from the terminology used on the bridge of a ship at sea when making a turn.  The angle of the rudder is measured in degrees and usually ranges from 0 to 30 degrees.  At speed a 30 degree angle is quite severe so often the order would be maybe port 20 and eventually ease to 5 as the ship gets round to it's new course, this is so you don't overshoot the intended course.  The ship will heel over quite a bit when applying 20 or 30 degrees of rudder so when people are irate and you say ease to 5 or ease to 20, the former means calm down and the latter means seriously calm down.  Again, sarcasm can wind up the more placid sailors...

Today I was chatting to one of my team, who happens to come from Canada, and I used the term we are under the cosh.  I thought the term was more commonly understood across the borders but she did not know what it meant.  I was describing the whole team, including myself, and I was saying we have always been under the cosh, there has been no let up.

I must make some effort to learn some Dutch idioms...