oh, god, I AM tuga!

When I could first mangle the Portuguese language into some semblance of sense, I would have conversations with REAL Portuguese people, and they would tell me terrible generalizations like "OH, yes, England is always so cold", "In England it rains everyday" and "The English are all blond"...this said to an englishwoman with dark brown hair and at the time olivey dark skin, before I lost the joy of sunbathing (don't forget, there's no distinction to OTHER people in the world between English and British, before I get grumpy of Tunbridge Wells writing to me, or Keith (nice holiday love?), writing to me saying "do you, in fact, KNOW the difference between British and English in your scattered little mind? I believe this may be confusing to our continental cousins etc etc etc).

I would think "Pah! You've obviously never been to England, you silly person you, it's full of dark swarthy people!"

What is the first thing that pops into my head on entering a touristy kind of place yesterday, full to the gunnels/gunwhales with people... British holiday makers?

"Blimey, they're all so PALE!"

Oh heck. The transformation is almost complete.