Ethnicity

I'm going to explain a little about my family background. One half of my family is Celtic, and the other half Romany. My mother has thick, rich dark wavy hair, and olive tanned skin which goes a beautiful colour in the summer.

My father has curly hair and fair freckled skin.

Of course, I would be a hybrid of this. I got the thick dark hair which does exactly what it wants, but I also got the fair skin with freckled shoulders.

Consequently when I was working last week I was rather amused when a male Filipino nurse became curious as to whether I coloured my hair. (I do colour it from time to time, but only to cover impending white hairs - I colour it back to my natural colour and hence I never have roots).

When I explained that my hair was naturally this colour, he asked me the most impossible question I have ever heard; Was I mixed race?*

The other two staff started laughing, and I had to join in with them. My skin is so pale it's practically grey in winter, and he was so confused as to why my hair was the same colour as his.

This amused me all night, or at least until a patient on the ward asked me if my hair was naturally black...


*his expression, not mine.