Yes. That's right. I'm not British.

I know I should get over it, but five years on, and the one thing that rattles me to the core is incinuations that as I'm not British, I have no right. I suppose this type of thing happens in any country where your accent/ethnicity/sexual preference/age/etc doesn't jive with the locals, but as we all know, it doesn't make it right.

It is infuriating. It makes me so angry, so upset, so frustrated, so pissed off and so astounded that my nationality should factor into an argument (where it has no bearing on the outcome), and yet, I know, and anticipate, that it will come to play in most contentious situations.

Today I've had the pleasure of dealing with a lovely citizen who insists that my 'incompetant' 'irresponsive' 'inadequate' team address her problem. Besides the abuse that we get to take, the actual problem is that her problem isn't ours. It's like calling the water company and insisting that they turn the electricity back on. And when you explain this to her, she goes off on a tirade about how rude, cocky, obnoxious you are...and then states, and 'you aren't even British, are you'?

To which I responded, correct. Calmly. Cooly. And then she continues to rant about how rude this makes me. And how 'dare I come into Britian and not take her, a tax paying resident, seriously'.

So in my collective calm rage, I inform her that I will not take her abuse any further and that I will be ending the...click. She hangs up on me. I don't even get the pleasure of hanging up on her.

I wish I knew of a term to express the emotions that this type of behaviour conjures in me. I want to cry. I shake my head in disbelief. I am angry. I want to smash things. I want to be calm. And I want to get one up on the offender. I'm taking suggestions for a new word, or at least, for words I can look up in the dictionary that best describe this feeling....