Monday, 21 April, Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 82nd birthday. This is her actual birthday, celebrated privately. Her public birthday is celebrated the 3rd Saturday of June each year. The Queen is the fifth longest serving British monarch (56 years).King George III 1760-1820 (59 years)
James VI of Scotland, 1567-1625, James I of England 1603- 25 (58 years)
King Henry III 1216-1272 (56 years)
VFM or Value For Money - This refers to the return you get on your investment, whether is time or money or other resources.
Customary & Practice - means the precedent or usual way things are done.
Add another string to my bow - when I first heard this I thought it referred to a bow, as in a bow & arrow, in which case you would 'add another arrow in your quiver'. No. It refers to the bow you use to play a stringed instrument, thus enhancing the sound. Makes much more sense!
Hoover up the data - upload the data. Actually, "hoovering" is a verb that refers to picking something up!
and my favorite, "It's like teaching Granny to suck eggs!" - The story behind this expression is that you can punch a hole in both ends of a raw egg and suck out the insides. When a child learns this, it's the kind of thing the child wants to teach to someone else, especially Granny, but the reality is that Granny already knows about it. Perhaps one measure of Granny's skill at Granni-ness is how much enthusiasm she can display while 'learning' about and eating raw eggs. The metaphoric meaning is that Granny is already an expert as far as egg-sucking is concerned, and experts get kind of bored when someone is trying to teach them something they already know quite well. I see it as a sort of admonition to pay attention to the audience, and just because something is new or interesting to you, doesn't mean it will have any appeal or relevance to someone else.
Wash up - after you finish a group project or task, it's when you sit down and talk about what went well and what didn't. We called this a "post mortem" in my last job. This way is nicer!
