Chuffed to Conkers

Has anyone else heard of this expression? My Pops said it the other day, after he'd figured something HUGE out at work. He expressed that he was "chuffed, really, really chuffed." He was grinning as he said it. The smile threw me off. My ears and eyes were getting drastically different messages.

Ears: Oooh, he said chuffed (whateverthehellthatmeans)...he must be pissed.

Eyes: Pops is smiling his "apple cheeks" smile...he must be really pleased.

Turns out Eyes were right.

Then we had them over for dinner and were talking about childhood games. The conversation turned to Conkers - some shit about drilling a hole in a chestnut "acorn" and stringing a piece of twine though it to make a weapon. Well, not exactly a weapon, but a device that they would then hit each others' conkers with to see whose would crack into a million bits first, thus losing.

?

Whatever, everyone was poor then - it was the war.

So the conversation progressed and Pops reminisced about how as kids in the 50s in England, they'd used the expression "chuffed to conkers." Chuffed to conkers...chuffed to conkers.

Took me a while, but I finally got it. Thrilled to pieces! Cool. This is going to be my new catch phrase.

Today I was chuffed to conkers seeing the expression on my Subway guy's face when I ordered this way: "I'd like a foot long chicken bacon ranch on Parmesan white bread with extra cheese tomato lettuce light on the ranch dressing and a six inch seafood with with all the vegetables pepper vinegar and just so you know there is a roach crawling on the wall behind you oh look it's going behind the microwave and it's back out hey yeah look right there...behind you dude."

Chuffed.

To Conkers.