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Yup, the final stage in the citizenship process is now over!

A ceremory at the local council chambers, sitting around in the councillors chairs, being welcomed to the borough, and having to give a pledge etc. Then getting presented with our citizenship certificates by an ex-mayor of the borough. More nervewracking than I thought it would be, but now it’s done.

There would have been about 80 people all getting their citizenship that day, from all over the world. A couple of other Kiwis, and about 6 or 8 Aussies too.

Just need the passport now….

There are some people that amaze me. I’ve been reading the blog of a friend of my sister from Japan who’s been going on a small cycle trip. Just a small one from Japan to England, staying close to 14 degrees latitude on a recumbant bike. Alone. The link is on the right on the “blogroll”.

I can’t help thinking that he’s absolutely nuts! But at the same time it seems a completely sane and amazing thing to do at the same time. It must be such an absolutely amazing experience. So far away from my normal 9 to 5 life! I just don’t know if I’d have the guts and determination to do something like that. I’d like to think I would, but I suspect I’d just enjoy the planning and dreaming, and not get around to the doing and experiencing.

It’s a fantasitic read though. I recommend starting at the start of the trip and following it right through.

When he gets to London I definitely want to buy him a beer! I’m sure he’ll be needing one by then!

He does remind me a lot of a friend of ours who managed to travel the length of the Dabube river in much the same way. Nuts. But good on them!

A nice surprise in the post today. My citizenship application has been approved! So I’m almost a real native then! That was pretty quick and painless! A lot faster and easier than all the work permit dealings with the Home Office, anyway.

Still a final hoop remaining though. I now need to go to a ceremony and give an Affirmation of Allegiance to the Queen and whatnot. Should be fun.

Then I can sort out a passport and be able to travel again… Though that doesn’t sound like it’s a long involved process, thankfully.

Finally got around to putting in my application for UK citizenship on Thursday, with the help of the Nationality Checking Service at one of the local council offices.

Now I just have to wait and see how long it takes to work its way through the corridoors of the Home Office. Hopefully it will be quicker than the 5 month standard waiting time having had the help of the NCS.

I hope so. I’ll let you know.

Just an update for those waiting for the photos of the splendid Egypt holiday we’ve just been on…

We took 1,129 pictures, and have 60 from the friends we were with too. Of them, we have managed so far to weed out 34 that are just rubbish, 135 that we have better versions of, and 16 that we really like.

So that leaves 1,004 to go! 10% done then. But we’ll get there. One day soon, I hope. It just doesn’t help that we can only manage to last about half an hour a time before one or other of us gets sick of it all.
We’ll keep you updated on progress!

Here’s a story from the Sun site with his vital stats, and here is the BBC’s story, with details of his diet.

Yes, here it is! The obligatory First Post of yet another way to try to keep everyone (including myself) up to date with life, the universe and everything.

I’m working on the principle of “if you write it, they may come”… But we’ll see.

But the main purpose of all this is so I can have somewhere to store all the stuff I’ve been doing, so I can remember when, how, and maybe why, I did it.

Anyway. Hi there!