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British AF
Feb. 7th, 2016 11:10 pmSo. Just three year and a half years after arriving in England, and filling in piles of paperwork, giving the home office many photos, allowing them to take my finger prints, attending interviews, and giving them a few thousand pounds, the kind people at the home office said I could join up and be one of these jerks, and it was made official on Friday.
We drove down to the exciting city of Truro. (also the only cathedral city in Cornwall.) We went to the county hall -a building that was built in the sixties -complete with the outdoor landscape to go with it. First I was given a name badge, and was told to sit in one place. Then some school girls lead us upstairs and handed me off to a lady. The lady told Mr. Jenner to go and sit with the other guests. I was told that I would be receiving a gift from the people of Cornwall and I had the choice of a pin (both made of Cornish tin) either in a Cornish knot, or the Cornish shield. And if I wanted to put down 10 quid, I could have a fancy looking certificate saying, "She is a legit British citizen." Then I was handed off to ANOTHER lady and she said to sit in this line of chairs and that I would have my turn to speak with a gentleman about which pin I wanted, to show my ID, and my letter from the home office and to sign a bit of paperwork. Which I did. Chose the Cornish knot, said nope to the fancy certificate (it would just gather dust in a drawer.) and then signed my name. The gentleman said I have lovely penmanship. THEN I was told to go and sit a bit. I had a quick chat with Mr. Jenner. Then all the citizens to be where taken into the council room (where they do all the business for the running of Cornwall.) and told us how the ceremony would go and where we would sit. So many steps.
Then it got real. We left the room, all the guests went in, and then they had us come in to some Cornish anthem. There were short speeches from various people, including, a Cornish Councillor, and a deputy Lieutenant (he is the representative for the Queen as she can't show up to all these gigs. I had a chat with him before the ceremony. A very nice man, he knew some obscure things about Seattle.)
Then it was time to recite the oath/affirmation. I mentioned this elsewhere but I was "meh" about myself but I was humbled by people who are still working on learning English who had to say the oath. And to do that in a room of people isn't easy. Those people deserve all of the praise and admiration. They have worked much harder than me to get to this point.
I have to mention this one woman who was a guest. She was American. And I do mean AMERICAN. I spotted her a mile away and even before she said one single word I thought, "yep, she is one of ours." And I was so right. She was this stereotype. She was soooo loud. She took up so much space. The way she moved around and had to have the attention and during the whole freaking ceremony she kept moving around the room to take photos. She asked one of the citizens-to-be if they could move a bit so she could get a better shot. I looked at her, looked at the person (He was Scandinavian.) she spoke to and gave him a "get a load of this lady" look. He gave me, "I know, right?!" look.
Some people eh?
Anyhow, once we recited things, we then went up to collect our certificates of naturalization, our fine fine jewelry, and shook hands with people. Once that was done we marched out and did our first British thing by getting into a queue for so-so tea, and biscuits and cake.
(the tea wasn't very warm. But the saffron cake was good.)
There were pictures for people that wanted them, and then we got out of there because we had grocery shopping to do, a drive home (1.5 hours.) and kids to pick up. Plus it was Friday and we wanted to beat the traffic.
And that is how I do the citizenship thing. Ate pizza, drank a coke, and then scarfed down a cadbury bar. And watched Graham Norton that evening with a cup of tea. Multiculturalism.
The rest of the weekend has been dealing with the present storm. And the fact that the boiler stopped working this morning. Along with the hot water. Fuckity fuck. I boiled water tonight so that the kids could have a bath. It wasn't fun but it did the job. I did a lot of tidying today, and checking the fire, and filling hot water bottles. I just want to find a hot tub and never get out of it again.
We experienced a flash flood on Saturday. It flooded right in front of our house (ankle deep) which thankfully disappeared after a few hours when the rain let up a bit. Every road was like a raging river, and unless you had 4 wheel drive it wasn't worth going out. I had been out earlier as I had taken Miss Biscuit to her first dance class. At the time the roads were okay -yeah it was raining a lot but nothing new. Miss Biscuit loved dance class and is hooked. I think this might be a good outlet for her as she loves to perform, she likes to move around a lot, and she likes to learn things. Now to get her some shoes.
May the guy who fixes the boiler show up tomorrow and sort this out pronto.
We drove down to the exciting city of Truro. (also the only cathedral city in Cornwall.) We went to the county hall -a building that was built in the sixties -complete with the outdoor landscape to go with it. First I was given a name badge, and was told to sit in one place. Then some school girls lead us upstairs and handed me off to a lady. The lady told Mr. Jenner to go and sit with the other guests. I was told that I would be receiving a gift from the people of Cornwall and I had the choice of a pin (both made of Cornish tin) either in a Cornish knot, or the Cornish shield. And if I wanted to put down 10 quid, I could have a fancy looking certificate saying, "She is a legit British citizen." Then I was handed off to ANOTHER lady and she said to sit in this line of chairs and that I would have my turn to speak with a gentleman about which pin I wanted, to show my ID, and my letter from the home office and to sign a bit of paperwork. Which I did. Chose the Cornish knot, said nope to the fancy certificate (it would just gather dust in a drawer.) and then signed my name. The gentleman said I have lovely penmanship. THEN I was told to go and sit a bit. I had a quick chat with Mr. Jenner. Then all the citizens to be where taken into the council room (where they do all the business for the running of Cornwall.) and told us how the ceremony would go and where we would sit. So many steps.
Then it got real. We left the room, all the guests went in, and then they had us come in to some Cornish anthem. There were short speeches from various people, including, a Cornish Councillor, and a deputy Lieutenant (he is the representative for the Queen as she can't show up to all these gigs. I had a chat with him before the ceremony. A very nice man, he knew some obscure things about Seattle.)
Then it was time to recite the oath/affirmation. I mentioned this elsewhere but I was "meh" about myself but I was humbled by people who are still working on learning English who had to say the oath. And to do that in a room of people isn't easy. Those people deserve all of the praise and admiration. They have worked much harder than me to get to this point.
I have to mention this one woman who was a guest. She was American. And I do mean AMERICAN. I spotted her a mile away and even before she said one single word I thought, "yep, she is one of ours." And I was so right. She was this stereotype. She was soooo loud. She took up so much space. The way she moved around and had to have the attention and during the whole freaking ceremony she kept moving around the room to take photos. She asked one of the citizens-to-be if they could move a bit so she could get a better shot. I looked at her, looked at the person (He was Scandinavian.) she spoke to and gave him a "get a load of this lady" look. He gave me, "I know, right?!" look.
Some people eh?
Anyhow, once we recited things, we then went up to collect our certificates of naturalization, our fine fine jewelry, and shook hands with people. Once that was done we marched out and did our first British thing by getting into a queue for so-so tea, and biscuits and cake.
(the tea wasn't very warm. But the saffron cake was good.)
There were pictures for people that wanted them, and then we got out of there because we had grocery shopping to do, a drive home (1.5 hours.) and kids to pick up. Plus it was Friday and we wanted to beat the traffic.
And that is how I do the citizenship thing. Ate pizza, drank a coke, and then scarfed down a cadbury bar. And watched Graham Norton that evening with a cup of tea. Multiculturalism.
The rest of the weekend has been dealing with the present storm. And the fact that the boiler stopped working this morning. Along with the hot water. Fuckity fuck. I boiled water tonight so that the kids could have a bath. It wasn't fun but it did the job. I did a lot of tidying today, and checking the fire, and filling hot water bottles. I just want to find a hot tub and never get out of it again.
We experienced a flash flood on Saturday. It flooded right in front of our house (ankle deep) which thankfully disappeared after a few hours when the rain let up a bit. Every road was like a raging river, and unless you had 4 wheel drive it wasn't worth going out. I had been out earlier as I had taken Miss Biscuit to her first dance class. At the time the roads were okay -yeah it was raining a lot but nothing new. Miss Biscuit loved dance class and is hooked. I think this might be a good outlet for her as she loves to perform, she likes to move around a lot, and she likes to learn things. Now to get her some shoes.
May the guy who fixes the boiler show up tomorrow and sort this out pronto.
