"You have a little accent"

 "Where are you from?" asked the tiny lady in the colourful head cloth after we discussed the health of the fig tree growing out of the steps up to the Meriadeck centre. 

"So where are you from?"

"I'm Welsh, from Wales", I said. I always put it like this now as it gives people double the chance of homing in. It's pretty emphatic in French because you say "I'm Welsh, from the Land of Wales".

"Oh! Scotland!" she said.

"No, Wales", I insisted.

"Ireland, then?" 

"No, Wales. It's a small country between England and Ireland."

"But I thought that was part of England."

I coughed.

"You also have an accent. Where are you from?"

"South America" (One says America of the South)

"Texas or Florida?" - No, I didn't say this, though I wanted to.

"From which country?"

"Peru"

We talked a bit more about the countries from which people had come to the church - we've had most Latin American countries.