A miserable old tradesman I used to work with when I was serving my time was a bit absent minded and got loads of phrases/meanings wrong.
After any disagreements he regularly accused me of having "no brains at all..........not one", another thing he said all the time was "quote me if I,m wrong".(instead of correct me).
One time we were working in a nice old lady,s house who brought us a cup of tea, and when she enquired about how the work was going, he said......these jobs can be fcking bastards sometimes!!!. She was gobsmacked, but never complained or anything, later, when I pulled him up on it, he swore he hadnt said it!!!