Conversations

I wonder when I'm going to get bored of having the same conversations all the time - how long have you been travelling, where are you going, where have you been - followed inevitably by another top tip on a place you simply have to go to, or sight you absolutely must see. Tips I listen to, and often discard, mostly because I've already forgotten them by the end of the conversation (except the guy who suggested I hired a motorbike in Vietnam - that one I'm still laughing about!)

The conversation I have already had enough of however is this:
"oh you're from England?"
"the UK, yeah England" (#bettertogether!)
"whereabouts?"
"Leicester"

From here, I get one of two responses
1. "hey, they won the league!" - yes yes they did. No I don't support them. I would probably care more if Notts Forest won the league. (on a side note, I did find a City shirt on one of the market stalls in KL - next to Barcelona, Man Utd, Chelsea... It was a little bizarre!)

2. Alternatively, this happens: "so, what do you think about Brexit?"*
This is the answer I would like to give...
"dear fellow traveller, I can't begin to describe how I feel about Brexit. I haven't yet been back in my country since the vote, and I am very much attempting to live in ignorant bliss until I live there again. The same ignorant bliss that you live in. You didn't get the texts from your friends describing how much they didn't want to go to the staffroom at work, how they were scared of what was happening, how many racial incidents occurred in their schools and work places in the days and weeks after. The texts describing how horrible the atmosphere was in the country as a whole. Perhaps it's not on the same scale as the Iraqi war, or the Egyptian riots, but this word, Brexit, is ripping my country apart. Please stop discussing politics when we only met less than an hour ago."

Instead I shrug my shoulders and explain politely - I'm British afterall - that no one quite knows what is going to happen, or when it might happen, so for now, we will all just wait for the politicians to make some decisions.

*I feel I should mention that not a single European has had this conversation with me - they get it.