Sorry for the thin 'Blogging; I'm still moving the furniture around in here, though I did take a break earlier this evening to visit our local cheap-and-cheerful Chinese restaurant.
I have just paid in advance at the counter. The girl behind it looks at me quizzically. I smile.
“Are you British?” she asks.
“Yes, I am.”
“I mean are you English?”—she's more insistent now.
“Yes.”
“You don't look British.”
I smile again.
“I'm half African.”
“Oh. You don't look African. You look Eastern European.”
Over the years, I've been accused of looking Spanish, Indian, Italian, and even Oriental, but “Eastern European” is a completely new one on me.
I recently worked with a Pakistani chap, who now lives and works in Houston but is often sent on jobs all round the world. When he is in Mexico they think he’s Mexican, Brazil Brazilian, Iran Iranian, Pakistan Pakistani, Syria Syrian, Kuwait Kuwaiti, and Spain Spanish.
Handy.
When asked about my ethnic origins I have started describing myself (only when asked of course) as ‘Anglo’, which I picked up from the US and which doesn’t come over like ‘English’ – which (and I hope I don’t cringe here) sounds like a threat.
Not as threatening as posting a link that dials up a premium-rate porn site in your comment, “Oliver”. Thanks to WordPress the offending URL is no longer embedded in your post, but you've just been blocked permanently.
Internet Explorer users should switch to Mozilla for all their Web-browsing if they want to avoid being scammed by exploits like this one.
Terrific Blog you have. Peace Out.
TreeFrog