After 5 glorious years living, working, falling in love and getting married in Belo Horizonte, Brazil … in 1990 we came to live in England.  But.. that particular reverse culture shock is not what this is about….

A year or so later, we decided to go back to Brazil for a holiday and to see family and friends.  Now, while living in Brazil, I’d taken on and mastered Brazilian Portuguese – to such great effect that, when teaching private students English, I’d often had to produce my British passport at the outset as some sort of proof that I really was a true Brit!  The problem was, even then – and in hindsight that probably should have been more of a clue than it was as far as this true tale goes – I just sounded ‘like a Brazilian’.

So .. back to my current tale … After a long…