Our News > November--December

One great event that took place earlier in 2002 was the Government of Australia finally making some long debated changes to the Australian Citizenship Act, most importantly, repealing the dreaded Section 17 which resulted in loss of Australian Citizenship upon the voluntary acquisition of another citizenship. Our whole family, in conjunction with the Australian expat. community, had been involved in lobbying efforts for years. In April of this year, the Governor General finally signed the repeal into law, and on the same day, Glenn mailed his application for Canadian citizenship. After six months of processing, and sitting a mandatory citizenship exam, on November 6th Glenn was sworn in as a Canadian citizen, while still being able to retain his Australian citizenship. It was avery important day for us, and cause for much celebration!

A couple of weeks later, Glenn was on the road with work again, but this time with Theresa in tow. After all how could he go to Las Vegas for a weekend and leave Theresa at home? Vegas was a blast! We were amazed at the themed casino resorts, and the no-expenses-spared architecture. The following photos show what we mean, with the New York, New York and Paris casinos.

     

We stayed at the Flamingo, which had flamingoes living in the gardens. We rode the roller coaster on the roof of the 112-story Stratosphere tower. We had dinner at Caesar's Palace, and saw the Cirque de Soleil at the Bellagio. There were so many other things to do (including Glenn giving the presentation that he was paid to be there for), that we barely had any time left to lose money at the casinos!

After so many business trips to cities with so little to see and do, it was great to go somewhere really exciting and entertaining for once, and especially great to be able to go together!

So all this brings us to December, and a busy time getting ready for Christmas. On eof our many Christmas tasks was Glenn (the consultant) building a bed frame as a Christmas gift for Rob (the carpenter) from the pile of lumber that Rob has living in our back yard... It is a long and ironic story, so don't ask, but a photo of the work-in-progress is below!!! For Christmas Day, we had Theresa's Mom, and also our friends Rosemary and Brian over for the traditional Christmas dinner.

     

So that's our news for the year, as we sit here on Boxing Day and finish this update. We would like to take this chance to wish all of our family and friends a happy, healthy and peaceful 2003. As for us, we are wishing for a year just as enjoyable, and hopefully just a little less busy, than the one that has just passed!