M8

I don't like getting called mate and particularly m8, there's no need,if you're in a hurry don't write it at all because I don't like it anyway. I'm sorry Andy if you read this but you might as well know. You even know my name and we are mates anyway and if we're not then shut up. I'll let you off since you spent some time in England.
It's big in Australia and there was one guy in particular in Queensland who had it bad, 'Yis mite' this and 'Yis mite' that. There was never a 'Yis' without a 'Mite'. More of a tick, (like it, like it)
The obnoxious DJ, Peter Powell started calling callers it on the radio in the eighties because he could never remember anyone's name. He called everyone mate and now everyone's mating left right and centre, one big happy family of mateyness. On the face off it,it seems harmless enough, what grumpy old git could object to an assumption of friendship suggesting fighting it out back to back in the trenches of Passandale in another time. Well it could mean that, depends how it's said, it could be menacing, it could mean a lot worse .
We don't know what the tone was by e-mail. Use names by e-mail, that's friendly, o.k. 'Min' ,(Perthshire) 'Pal,' pronounced paul, (Fife) 'Son' (Lanarkshire?) used to be 'Jimmy' but probably 'Big Man' now (Glasgow) and my favourite, 'Chief' (Dundee) If you disagree with the regionalities of any of these casual appellations or have any of your own, I'd love to hear them. Send them to the guest page.
We'll probably have the 'Berry Up' out again soon, it's a popular one. I'll need to go and taste that 'Mutiny', see how that's coming along.