It might be difficult to believe your mincies (mince pies: eyes) but a cash machine in East London is using a cockney accent to deal with customers.
The cash machine in Leytonstone offers the option between English and Cockney, and then Sausage & Mash (cash), a balance on Charlie Sheen (screen balance) or a Huckleberry Finn change (pin change)
Even the numbers have migrated east, with a fiver becoming Lady Godiva and Speckled Hen listed for ten.
Cockney slang started over 200 years ago to stop strangers (and maybe the police) from eavesdropping on their conversation, as the second word usually dropped to hide the meaning.
So ‘butcher’s hook’, the rhyme for ‘look’, is shortened to ‘butchers’ and ‘barnet fair’ is shortened to ‘barnet’, a word still used to describe hair.
Other rhyming slang word’s have bled into everyday usage, their exact meaning obscured, but offensive origin preserved. ‘Hampton wick’ has become ‘you’re really getting on my wick’ and 'Berkely Hunt' which began life as a rhyme for a very rude word, has become an everyday insult, in the form of ‘berk’.
Moving with the times, some of the stranger rhymes include Nelson Mandelas for ‘Stellas’, or beers, or Colonel Gaddafi for 'café'.
Asked about the cockney cash machine, which is owned by Bank Machine, one customer said, "This is brilliant. I think it's great to have a bit of light hearted fun during this current financial climate. It's tough enough withdrawing cash when you've not got much but if you can do it with a giggle it makes all the difference."