COLD

[flantheman82]

The balls have just dropped clean off my brass monkey, it must be feckin' cold tonight

Freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Anyone explain that one? I've heard a version, but doesn't really make sense; involves war ships and canon

You're right about the cannons. On the old ships that had cannons on them, the cannon balls were stored on a rack made of brass called a brass monkey. On extremely cold nights the brass would contract with the cold and the balls would drop off as they didn't fit anymore, hence the saying.
Or so I'm led to believe.

[ardal]

ayee that's what I heard myself.
Up there with ones like "we'll see have it pans out"