I originally became interested in the idea of coming to Australia in the late 1980s. England, and specifically Aylesbury, depressed me, and I wanted something more from the society I lived in. It took about 15 years for me to become an Australian Citizen, a goal Tina and I accomplished in late 2004. The next step, a formality really, was to get an Australian passport.

In England you get a form from the post office, fill it in, send it off with a photo and a small cheque, and you get a passport back in the post. In theory it works the same way in Australia, with a few subtle differences. The forms are available on line, which is rather neat. I filled them in in my web browser and the website generated a couple of PDF documents, with all the questions completed, all ready for me to print. We needed Clive - a bona fide Aussie himself these days - to sign the back of our photos, which he did when I eventually got them taken and printed.

With the forms completed we discovered that you don't just fill 'em in, you you actually have to go to the post office and have an interview. We took along our Australian Citizen Certificates, wondering what they might ask, but it turned out to be rather dull and painless. Somewhat less painless was the payment process. $150 each! Outrageous! All that sorted out, and the body blow to the wallet recovered from, the passports eventually arrived this week, mine a day before Tina's (which worried her a little).

Somehow, having an Aussie passport makes me feel like I belong here much more than a certificate of citizenship. A bit of paper given to me by a self important bloke in a suit means very little; a real passport is more like having the key to the door. It gives the message that I can leave and will welcomed back whenever I want to return.

It took a long time to get to this point. As a teenager I used to watch the Aussie Rules football games on Channel 4 on Sunday mornings, envious of the people in the crowds. They had what I wanted: the freedom of this country. Now I have it too.