Just in case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been so long, dear friends – well, there’s been a LOT going on… First and foremost, I am now officially a British citizen – after a long, strenuous and costly bureaucratic journey…
When I finally got my indefinite leave to stay late last year, I immediately started preparing for my citizenship application: all the necessary papers from the Home Office, the Revenue, the Registry Office, my old German passport – no need for that anymore now – plus an English language test, a “Life in the UK” test, biometrics, two witnesses, and a fee of £1750.
We started out with the two trips to Manchester, for my English test (I wasn’t worried about that, having spoken English since I was ten and having published two books in English), and for my Life in the UK test – for which I got a whole book with all the relevant knowledge, from British history from the Stone Age to the Second World War (again, not a big problem for me as a historian) to the longest rivers and biggest lakes in Britain (this is where it got more difficult), the height of the London Eye and the number of emigrants during the 19th century down to all the important inventors, composers, painters and Olympic gold medal winners this country has had – and by the time I was through with them, my head was really reeling and I wasn’t at all confident anymore whether I was going to make it…
I did, though, so on to the actual online application, which took me two whole days, including getting the two witnesses involved – two very dear old friends of Ian’s who had become my friends as well and were enormously helpful.
After submitting everything – and paying the £1750 – I got the order for my next task: going to Liverpool to have my biometrics and fingerprints taken. Another two-day journey with hotel and meals to pay for; by now, our bank account was really hitting the rocks… Got that done, too – and then a LONG waiting period started; it could be up to six months, they had warned me in advance, and it probably would be, because due to the upcoming changes in the law which would make applying for British citizenship even more difficult and lengthy, the number of applicants early this year was of course particularly high.
January passed, February, March and April – and meanwhile, both my darling Ian and me were working like maniacs on our indexes in order to get our bank balance halfway under control again… But then, in the middle of May, AT LAST I got the coveted e-mail: application approved!!! And, from then on, everything went just dandy: I got an appointment for my citizenship ceremony within two weeks, and on the 28th of May the big day was here: we set out to Caernarfon where I would become a British – and Welsh – citizen…
The ceremony was beautiful, and I felt something really important was happening: I was pledging allegiance to this place where I had finally found my home, and I was becoming part of it – after basically having been a foreigner half my life (or all my life, you could say, because I had never felt at home in Germany). We all sang the Welsh anthem together, and I knew: I am British now, and I’m Welsh – and I’m home…
And immediately afterwards, I applied for my British passport – also without any problems or delays, and 10 days later I held the document in my hands; I’m a Brit, and I can prove it! (And I needed it for the first time just the following weekend, when I sat my second Welsh language exam; another step towards becoming a fully fledged Welshwoman…)
Well, after that, of course, another two months of relentless indexing were in order – in order to pay for our long-awaited summer holidays. 6-8 hours a day in front of the computer, no Sundays, no bank holidays, just to get the money together for our hotel in Torquay which we’d booked early this year via booking.com; and finally the day came to set out for England, 200 miles by train – only to find WHAT?? That our hotel was closed down!! Booking.com? Booking.scam! We’re still working on getting our money back from the crooks…
Aaanyway – at least, this episode made us realize how stupid we were really – who needs the “English Riviera” when you’ve got the Irish Sea right on your doorstep? All right, it’s a few degrees colder, but so what? I used to swim in ice cold mountain lakes as a kid, so the water temperature in Holyhead in summer really isn’t too bad. Plus, our friendly local cabbies don’t mind at all taking all our picknick equipment down to the beach for the day, including chairs, table, all sorts of toys and games, and a huge food hamper!
Plus, our local beach is extremely quiet, ideal for relaxing and calming down after a whole year of work, bureaucracy, and pointless train journeys to non-existing locations; here, you can really find yourself again, and the romantic side of your marriage…
There’s no place like home, and there’s no vacation like a staycation! A comfy bed at night, a kitchen to cook your own food, a huge DVD collection for the evening entertainment, and a whole range of takeaways round the corner if you fancy a ready meal – what do you fancy tonight, Indian, Chinese, Italian, or fish and chips?
And there’s a lot of other things to do in lovely Holyhead: a cinema, a culture centre, a leisure centre, a very interesting Maritime Museum which I now visited for the very first time at last,
and – a funfair, which, as we only realised a few days ago, comes here every summer for three whole weeks! Of course, being an old adrenaline junkie, I just had to go on the biggest and most horrific-looking ride called “Freak Out” – being catapulted and swung around 20 metres above the beach road is quite an experience…
So, what is all this travelling mania about anyway? Spending enormous amounts of money on long journeys, harming the environment using cars and airplanes – and in the end needing to recover from your holidays before you’re up for work again, instead of just taking it easy, enjoying your time off and your hobbies, and then going back to work full of energy and in great mood! Try a staycation, dear friends, there IS no place like home sweet home…
Roberta Franklin 