Am yer oop?

My grandfather was born in Bilston though he came to Newport as a youngster. Apparently, he would at times shout this black country phrase at the bottom of the stairs to rouse his sons for school or work. "Am yer oop?"

Where do you think you are, down 'ome?

My nana (who started off in Bristol but lived in Newport most of her life) would say to me as a kid, if I did something cheeky
Where do you think you are, down home?

What did Horace say?

Sometimes if I mumbled my dad would say
What did Horace say?

Apparently it comes from a radio programme during WWII. Harry Hemsley had a family programme which featured 3 children, the youngest being Horace. Being the youngest, Horace wasn't able to speak clearly and whenever he said anything, the father would have to ask one of the other two children "What did Horace say?" and the child would translate.

'E 'ad it on 'im, aye

One of my dad's again - describing someone in a temper
'E 'ad it on 'im, aye
He might add that the man was tampin', South Walian dialect for very angry. Tamping could also be used for heavy rain as in "it's tamping down".

Lie down there and I'll fan you

One of my mother's this. It's ironic, of course, a response to laziness, though sometimes I would lie down and once she even did fan me! Apparently it is an RAF saying from the twenties, influenced perhaps by the existence of Raj punkah wallahs.

Lie down there and I'll fan you
(or Lay down there and I'll fan you).

Don't say I don't do anything for you

Don't say I don't do anything for you is a phrase I would hear as a child. It was used as a joke when someone did some small thing for a person. I used it just now pulling a harmless unnoticed thread from my wife's jumper.

Providence

"You can't prove anything from providence"

Again, I think this is original. It's not that you can't learn from providence or make an educated guess but you can't prove anything simply from what happened. "My children are okay so my way of bringing them up must be right", etc. The example I like best is when you're playing tennis in the garden and there is a disputed call and so you play the point again and when it turns out in your favour you say "shows I was right". It doesn't, of course, at all.