British, not English

"From now on, please call me British Benjamin Schonken", declared our son as we left the Oxford Registry Office after our citizenship ceremony today.
"Oh, and Daddy, you aren't allowed to speak Afrikaans anymore. You're British."

And so we are. After an (at times) arduous naturalisation process (which cost us £837.36 - but hey, who's counting?), we are Pukka Poms. And we can prove it: we came home and had a fish and chip supper and a nice, strong cuppa. And we have the certificates to prove it.

After swearing our oath of allegiance (along with about 15 other immigrants), we were presented with our certificates by Oxfordshire's Deputy Sheriff. Ben (because he was born here) is the proud possessor of a "Certificate of Registration" while Philip and I have "Certificates of Naturalisation". (Anna is already a British Passport holder because of our visa status when she was born. Fortunately South Africa allows retention of citizenship so we have not had to give up our SA passports.) We can now apply for our "red books" and have already booked our first visa-less trip to Prague in October to celebrate!

Having our pic taken with Her Madge (well, amost).

God save our Queen!