Our last fortnight in the UK was spent visiting friends and castles and awaiting Maurice’s Irish Passport, my British Citizenship ceremony and our Indian Visas. We could tell that winter was coming with the change in the temperature and the lovely autumnal colours of trees and the carpets of leaves on the ground.
We decided to visit Windsor Castle before visiting Jennifer and Christian in Wokingham.
We were lucky and had a lovely sunny day and there were few tourists so we had a good look around the castle and St George’s chapel where Henry VIII and Jane Seymour are buried as well as George V and Queen Mary and George VI and the Queen Mother whose tomb is a very simple one.
After a lovely evening with Jennifer and family we left the next day to visit Karen who we had met 6 months previously in the Ayurvedic centre in Kerala. We walked into Clapham to the cinema and
saw the movie about the tenor Paul Potts, followed by a Thai meal and then home to watch the video the “Jazz Singer”.
In the morning we drove with strong winds and rain to Kent to see Leeds Castle and we managed to avoid getting wet and walked around the vast grounds and castle which was used by Henry VIII as a house for his first wife Catherine of Aragon. It was laterly bought in 1926 by an American heiress “Mrs Baillie” who did a lot of restoration work to the castle.
It was interesting this year to see the change in the seasons in England from Spring with all the daffodils to the yellow, brown and red colours of Autumn. The temperatures dropped slowly and the end of Summer Time left the days shorter and dark by about 5.30pm.
Our last week we spent with Michael and Ruth in the Chilterns and I managed to pick up a nasty stomach bug which laid me up for
a couple of days but we had a nice week notwithstanding that and before that we did have a nice meal out at the “Five Arrows” on the Rothschild’s Waddesdon estate.
On Thursday 31st October we went to the Aylesbury Register office for my private citizenship ceremony which was well conducted and I had a nice ten minute ceremony by the deputy superindendant of Registers and all five of us stood at the completion to the National Anthem. After a celebratory visit to my favourite shop TK MAXX we toasted the occasion with champagne and doghnuts. I won’t forget the date – Halloween!
We were not going to be in the country for the general ceremony hence the private one for 105 pounds. It was worth it to have my citizenship before we left England. Now I could apply for my British passport which will be applied for in Bali as we will be there for a long period.
The 1st November was Maurice’s big day when we went into London to pick up his Irish passport and our visas for India which all went smoothly. We were ready now to leave the UK for Europe.