I was walking along the main street of Perth, Ont, early one morning in an election year and overheard two old geezers talking politics while waiting for the hardware store to open: "What d'ya think of XX then?" "Well, when ya don't know where yer goin', any road 'll do, I guess."

Another: at an Arts Council meeting a guy was talking about ethnic arts and his work in Cardiff's black community. He was a Rasta and was talking about public perceptions: "People, dey t'ink we Rastas always doin' drugs. We don' do no drugs ... well: what's a little 'errrrb between friends, eh?"

Of course there's the classic Valleys' Welsh apocraphal story of the Mam on the beach at the Sunday School outing screaming at her little boy: "Johnny bach, come over by 'ere from where you are, over by there; I don't want to take you 'ome lost!"

sian