SHE MET HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II

 by: MisS VictoriA DaviD

Mixed emotions were felt by her and it was mainly because of the unknown outcome as well as her jittery forethoughts. Who would not be? Especially when she waited for almost a year before she finally received a red letter day! 

She unsealed the 4th rough brown envelope handed over by the postman and it contained a letter from the Home Office's Nationality team. This was it, she said anxiously and contemplatively to herself! The familiar nervousness started especially when she fully opened the tri-folded letter and read carefully the inscribed writings. Actually, she didn’t read it carefully as she was only looking for a particular word to end her great anticipation. In a leap, her eyes opened widely with a heart-warming angelic smile and its because of the one word, successful; which was written directly and clearly stated in the letter. 

It was almost a year of waiting for her in which she received a total of 4 corresponding letters within that period. That is why, in July 2014 she finally met Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She stood beside The Queen Elizabeth II like the rest who swore and pledged their loyalty as new citizens of the United Kingdom. 

Her journey was topsy turvy... 

It wasn't totally a smooth journey; she had also experienced it before coming over to the United Kingdom. That time she was very prepared to embarked on another life journey she encountered major problems with Philippine passport application requirements. She was bombarded with document problems and specifically, the typographical errors in her birth certificate. They hugely contradicted the other supporting documents and affected badly her passport application when she was in the Republic of the Philippines. 

She almost gave-up with the process of correcting her birth certificate whilst she was also working in Metro Manila, Philippines. Yes, she almost did as it was affecting slightly her work routine and health condition. There were days in which she would travel after work to the track down the different offices of National Statistics Office (N.S.O.) and only to be treated like a ghost. Sadly, some of the employees were very uncooperative and up to a point were using their positions to harass people. She could still vividly remember how she almost passed-out because of lack of sleep and had not eaten on time. However, the forgivable attitudes of 'some' employees she encountered toughened her more to keep pursuing the messy and chaotic system of correcting typographical errors. 

It was also almost a year of downside-up before she finally received the correction of her birth certificate. Her eldest sister, Sarah, was of great help especially in resolving and rectifying her records in their home town, General Santos City. Thank you and she is very proud to have her despite of their differences! 

The day of the citizenship ceremony occurred... 

She couldn’t wait to get inside the majestic 19th century County Hall in Kingston Upon Thames. A well-preserved luxurious man-made infrastructure with designed spacious main entrance and elongated shiny floors going through each wing of the building. Almost at the very end, an open-well stairs with quarter-turn landing was heading on to the first floor with narratively decorated stained glass windows. She paused for a while to feel the luminescent historical beauty of the entire architecture. She was delightfully tickled pink as she continued walking on the stairs in her red heels.

She handed over her citizenship invitation and was given back significant ceremonial papers to read while waiting for the rest to come... 

All invitees had arrived and they were all called to get inside the Ashcombe suite. They met in person the Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey who gave a welcome address and a few words about Surrey itself. He looked formal in his valour uniform and most handsome, too. It was a humid day outside and that is why she said to herself, 'thank you that this suite has an air-conditioned unit or else we will all be melting throughout the ceremony'. Apart from that she also asked herself regarding the Civic Dignitary's uniform, 'he might be feeling the humidity outside given how thick his uniform is?'. 

Names were called one by one until her turn came. She stood elegantly in her aztec design wrapped dress and then, swore/affirmed an Oath of Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. No more butterflies in her tummy and her face was left with immeasurable smile. After that, the pledge of loyalty took place as well as the presentation of Certificates for Naturalisation to the new citizens . Her certificate was handed over and a picture was taken beside the kind-hearted Lord Lieutenant who was very chatty and friendly. She returned to her seat blissfully. After that, they all finally sang the first verse of the National Anthem.

'God save our Gracious Queen! 

Long live our noble Queen! 

God save the Queen! 

Send her victorious, 

Happy and glorious, 

Long to reign over us, 

God save the Queen!' 

Everybody was on cloud nine and jubilant. Who would not be? That is why, her intoxicating cheerfulness continued by taking pictures of herself especially beside the portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II!

QUEEN VICTORIA'S HOME-MADE GREETING CARDS

 by: MisS VictoriA DaviD

Sending greetings cards via the post is a traditional and very useful way of communicating with loved ones to convey our feelings. We love to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries etc. as these are such important events in our life’s journey. We used to buy cards in bookstores or in the school-supply section of the shopping mall for that special card.

Nowadays, with the invention of the computer and the ubiquitous availability of the internet we can make our own greeting cards with our own special touch. We are all artists now! Thanks to Bill Gates.

It is easy to personalise a greeting card at home using the internet, a printer and photo paper/special paper: (The following procedure below is mainly for OpenOffice.org Writer.Ink, however it can be applied using the same sequence for Microsoft Office 2007).

1. Go to the web search engine of your Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and type-in “occasion + picture”. Once you have chosen a picture, just press the right side of your mouse and click the “save image as” that will take you to a destination link i.e. desktop, document, picture etc. and if possible, rename the picture before saving it.
2. Open the OpenOffice.org Writer on your desktop and search for “Format” and click “Page”. The page consists of three columns namely: Paper format, Margins and Layout setting. Go to “Margins”, change all the margin values to “1” (from top-bottom and from left-right) and choose either portrait or landscape orientation for your card(s). And then, go to “Paper format” to change the preferred paper size and don’t forget to write down the measurement of your paper’s width and height. Click “OK” button to save all of the changes.
3. Look for the tab “Insert” located on the top-left portion of your OpenOffice.orgWriter and go to “Picture” and click “From File” to search for the saved picture (refer to step 1). Click “Open” to transfer the picture in your OpenOffice.
4. Using your mouse, point the cursor at the picture and then, do a double press and click, “Wrap”. Go to "Settings" and select “Through” so that you can move the picture from left to right if you select landscape or from top to bottom if you set-up your paper as portrait. There is an instance that the size of the picture is larger than the size of the paper and in this case, adjusts the picture until it fits to the paper. Click “OK” button to save all of the changes.
5. As we are making a folded card we need to find the center of the paper so you know where to place the fold and the picture as well.
6. The “Page” from the Format is a great help in calculating the center of the paper as it contains the “Margins” and the “Paper’s width and height” measurements.
7. If you have calculated the center of the paper, adjust the picture in your Word document until it gets to the boundary of the center. Once it is accurately moved, adjust again the top (crosswise folding) or the left-side (lengthwise folding) for an extra space.
8. To add words and make it a much more personalised card, click "Show Draw Functions" located at the top-left and resembled like a pencil. Once clicked, a bar with choices will appear at the bottom-left of the OpenOffice and choose "Fontwork Gallery". If you have selected your own style just click “OK” button to see the options for "Fontwork".
9. Point the cursor of your mouse to the personalised greetings, then press the right side of your mouse and click “Wrap” that will show 7 choices and just select “Wrap Through”.
10. You can use your mouse or the cursors in your keyboard to move the personalised greetings from one side to another. If the greetings is long enough in your card, adjust it by simply moving the cursor of your mouse to the green-shaded squares. The yellow-shaded dot’s main function is to stretch the text.
11. Turn-on your printer and place your photo paper. Just make sure that the glossy side of the photo paper is towards you.
12. Go to “File” tab again, search and click for “Print”. Once you have the “Print” interface, click “Properties” and select “Photo” as your quality image (under Advanced) and change the paper’s “Type and Size” (under Main) according to your paper. Click “OK” button to save all of the changes.
13. From your “Print” interface, go to “Pages” and type the page number of your greeting card. Click “OK” button to start the printing process of it.
14. If the finish product is printed already don’t touch the image and text to avoid damages or let it dry for 2-3minutes in a safe place.
15. Once it is totally dry, just use a scissors to cut and then, fold your paper into crosswise or like a greeting cards’ folding.

The combined power of computers and internet is not just for one good purpose- communication. It is also a tool to discover and hone the creative side of us.