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This is my British passport.
I'm afraid my first contact with it rather lacked the reverence it deserved. I stepped on the envelope with a muddy welly boot as I walked in the door.
It's been 18 months since I became a British citizen & over a decade since I moved to the UK. I have handed over a lot of money to the Border Agency and jumped through innumerable bureaucratic hoops to achieve this. It means a lot to me. It's the last bit of documentation cementing my life here, with my large partner, chosen children & beautiful mortgage. I may have mixed up my adjectives there. Forgive me. I'm emotional & might need to have a bit of sugar in my cuppa to calm me down.
Yes, my British friends, you're stuck with me now. And I'm also now indistinguishable from you (so long as I don't open my mouth, which is unlikely).
Finally, apropos of nothing, cat and boy.
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That sounds very British indeed to me. Congratulations!
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YOU PASSED THE FINAL TEST.
If you hadn't, it would have self-destructed. :D
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Still have one more hurdle to surmount for the baby, involving a trip to the US embassy, but that doesn't feel quite as stressful since we've done it once already for Humuhumu.
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And hopefully you don't mind my asking this, but why don't you try to change your accent? I personally would if I were going to immigrate to the UK (and did change my accent partially whilst I was living there).
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You know, I've wrestled with this question ever since I moved here. I have conflicting reactions to the idea. Even though I've been here for quite a while, I've still spent the majority of my life in the USA. Giving up my accent, along with all the other adjustments I've made in the spirit of integration, feels like a step too far. It's changed quite a bit naturally, from daily exposure to British accents alone, but I can't bring myself to force it. When I encounter expat Americans who've been here a lot less time than I have but are "faking" a British accent, it makes me cringe. I know this is unfair - it's their choice, and it may be helping them to adapt to the culture - but part of me feels it's inappropriate when you haven't yet, as it were, earned your stripes through duration of stay.
OTOH, I can cosplay an RP accent with a reasonable degree of authenticity now, so I suppose if I practised, it would become second nature and I could always choose whether or not I wanted people to know my origins.
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I'm glad to see Telstar is continuing his important work as guardian of the small humans.
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Yes, he does like his hot water bottles. :D
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I get to vote in the general election, too. That will be exciting - although it's dampened slightly because I live in a very, very safe Tory area so my vote is unlikely to have any effect at all, given how unlikely I am ever to vote Conservative.
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I had a look for pictures of the inside front covers of US passports and I see that you have upgraded yourself from a passport that merely requests that assistance be provided to one where the Secretary of State requests and requires it.
However, I have to advise that these days the implied "...or we send in a gunboat" is rather less strong than it was in 1850.
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And yay for gorgeous photo.