More ha ha and he he

Yeh, today I had lots of ha ha and he he. It was Fatima's birthday, my Pakistani flatmate. So the six of us went out to celebrate it at Friday's, bought her gifts, cake, had a great time, took lots of pictures and two short videos (including one in which I speak Greek :) ) and came back with balloons they gave us there. This was the first and last time we all went out together. Soon everyone will go home, and I will be alone again. Seeing the pictures after we came back made me think that those guys are probably the best flatmates I will ever have here, and I also thought that, ten years from now, I will be looking at those pictures and saying: 'yeh, those were my first flatmates in London, I wonder how is everyone doing now?'

Oh.. and the other ha ha he he thing is that I just realised that it goes way back. I am reading nowadays She Stoops to Conquer (1968) by Oliver Goldsmith, and guess what I find:

Diggory: Then, ecod, your worship must not tell the story of old Grouse in the gun room: I can't help laughing at that- he! he! he!- for the soul of me! We have laughed at that these twenty years- ha! ha! ha! (p. 28)

Interesting. So why did he use 'he he' in the first and 'ha ha' in the second?

And, finally, two new expressions:

• I'll be back in the squeeze of a lemon (=quickly)
• We were like chalk and cheese (= not getting along well)

Oh, and did I mention that the word 'bloke' means 'man'? It's very informal though, and I think it's usually used in contexts close to when Egyptian's say 'se3eedy' (someone from upper/Southern Egypt) or 'falla7' (farmer) to mean 'a traditional man'.

Mai