More details as promised...

Today the tickets were booked on China Airlines for Amsterdam in December. We'll have two nights in Taipei on the way back to break up the long return journey. Many thanks for the loads of emails, texts and phone calls since the announcement yesterday. We are both very happy, and even a little bit excited.

Here in Australia we have every legal document drafted and signed regarding the two of us, but it is still one step short of marriage. Frankly, we both decided we didn't want to get married, although while Rene's sister and partner were getting married here on Straddie last October, we both mellowed slightly in that department. Perhaps a commitment ceremony on Straddie? Yes, that seemed a nice possibility.

Last week Rene received his invitation to a citizenship ceremony in August. At a recent dinner he had mentioned this ceremony to a Dutch person across the table. He stated that as far as he knew, since 2003 you couldn't be a single person in the eyes of the Dutch Government and accept a passport of another country without relinquishing the Dutch passport. No dual citizenship for single Dutch people. Now, if you are married, you are allowed to take the dual citizenship - the citizenship of your partner's country. Hence the postponement until Australia Day 2010 (January 26) of Rene's Australian citizenship ceremony and a trip to The Netherlands to get married in a civil ceremony. I might just mention here that the Australian Government, although not having same sex marriage yet, still allows Dutch citizens the right to have both Australian and Dutch passports.

The nearest Dutch embassy with a civil servant working in it is Hanoi, Vietnam. Another works out of Bangkok, Thailand. We could either have been married in Asia, or for just a few hundred extra dollars, married with friends and family around us. Another plus is seeing everyone in Nederlands for the first time in five years. Christmas and New Year in Europe sounds very exciting and even romantic to me. I still remember walking along a canal arm in arm with Rene, through the gently falling snow, on January 1 2004 on the way to our favourite cafe in the early evening, bathed in the soft yellow of the street lamps. Cold? Not at all, in fact I was so fired up I was as warm as toast. Rene tends to do that to me sometimes (feel free to place a gentle 'sigh' here).

OK, we are being very pragmatic here; we need to marry in order to allow Rene the chance to have all the rights of an Australian, including the important right to vote. Hip hip hooray for pragmatism is all I can say.

Anybody have any recommendations regarding two nights in Taipei? I've never been there before. Feel free to submit all ideas to the 'comments' section.

I have done four shifts at the airport, each time in Domestic. This Saturday I have my first shift at International. My fourth shift yesterday at Domestic was quiet and the four hours dragged a bit, but luckily the first three shifts went quickly and I was really happy with the work. I like helping people and offering answers and advice. We have around 100 volunteers, with between 10 and 15 on duty every day 7am - 2:45pm across both terminals.

School resumes this week with me working an extra day setting up an art expo of work done by some of my ESL refugee children with a couple of art therapists. There's also lots of paperwork to do with plotting children on band scales and so on, so it's back to the grindstone. Luckily I feel like I've had a terrific break over the past fortnight.