I'm going to my very first street party on Monday to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee, and I cannot wait. As a Canadian we grew up with all things British (mostly because we're populated by a lot of ex-pats) and we like to think of ourselves as British at heart - which is why when we're told we're no different than the Americans, we get a bit glum. You can buy HP sauce, Marmite, and Twinings tea in the supermarkets, you know. Plus, we like to stick the letter u in words and it's "zed", not "zee".
We had a tea party at our house for the royal wedding last year, and I went a bit nuts with it. I was a little disappointed that the tackiest thing I could find in all of the discount and pound shops was this slightly hideous tea towel:
We had crustless sandwiches, scones, mini Victoria sponge cakes, lemon drizzle cake, tea, and Pimm's. If the government continues to insist that people take a test to demonstrate their knowledge of Britain to obtain citizenship, they should take stuff like this into account. Look at how British this is! I even bought royal cake stands for the occasion and bunting!
So it's with unmitigated and unabashed glee that I look forward to the Jubilee festivities. We were asked to bring a dish and one of the ladies organising the party mentioned that a cheesecake would be nice. "It's not terribly British", I said. "But then again, neither am I."
3 comments:
You can take the UK Citizenship test online, you know, for practice. I did so, and was gleeful to find that I passed the damn thing first go without any studying. So clearly being English isn't too hard.
Disclaimer: I became a Brit prior to the introduction of these tests, as I assume you did. And I think that the only tests you really need to pass are the ability to stand your round, keep to the left on the tube, and moan about the weather.
I'm not a citizen. :) They changed the process just after I become eligible to apply (is it ME?), so it now costs roughly £700 for citizenship, passport, and the Life in Britain test. I'll just keep my Canadian passport and be a permanent UK resident, thanks! You know that you can no longer get right of abode via grandparents?
I am very good and moaning about the weather, though.
Bloody hell. We toyed with having a republican party (red white or blue not allowed; we'd have a bonfire and a guillotine and encourage knitters) but decided to just enjoy the extra day off instead.
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