Yes, waking up on 23 June 2016 to the news that the UK had voted for Brexit was something of a shock. But part of me also thought, ‘Bollocks. Forget about it for now. It’s still at least two years away. Nothing too much will change any time soon. And anything can happen before we’re due to leave.’

Today, the only thing that remains from the above is the ‘bollocks’.

As it stands, with Britain on the cusp of leaving the EU, theoretically in around 20 days, I, similar to millions of other Brits, have little idea of what to expect.

My attitude is still partly that I genuinely don’t give a shit. If Brits want to leave, then leave. They never really grasped that the EU was never only about economics – British economist and Brexit expert Jonathan Portes agreed with me on this when I interviewed him recently for Business Spotlight magazine.

I know that leaving will affect me disproportionately compared to many Brits who live in the UK. I live in Munich, a fabulous city in the south of Germany. My kids are here. I enjoy living here, even if after a decade and a half, I’ve still got more than half an idea that one day I’ll return to Britain.

Every single one of my British friends who can have now completed their Einbürgerung, which basically means they now have a German passport to sit alongside their British one. Me? I’m too busy being pissed off that I should even have to consider wasting my time applying, doing the citizenship test and the language test, and paying for it all. Why the hell should I? Why haven’t the EU and the UK already preserved my current rights, because they bloody well should have by now?

The bureaucracy I might face without German citizenship, from travelling around the EU to renting a flat to work, could be huge. There again, it might not. Who knows?

For someone who is now disenfranchised by my own country because I’ve lived in Germany for the last 15 years, and who was subsequently not allowed to vote in the 2016 EU referendum (a broken Tory manifesto promise), it might sound strange that I’m hesitating on what to do. ‘Get a German passport, for christ’s sake,’ is the refrain.

Even with (possibly) only around three weeks remaining, it’s not too late. To be frank, though, I don’t want German citizenship – even if I don’t begrudge others from around the world who have already acquired (or want to acquire) it. In fact, I embrace internationalism, multiple identities and dual citizenship.

So, it’s decision time [1]: do I very reluctantly put in a German citizenship application in this coming week? Or not bother, and live with the consequences? To make my life easier, the answer, of course, is: Yes, citizenship. But why the hell should I?

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[1] Though there are stories that Germany has drafted an fabulously sounding Brexit-Übergangsgesetz, which ‘foresees that British nationals would have until December 31st, 2020 to apply for German citizenship – this, however, seems doesn’t seem to apply if there is no withdrawal agreement’: https://www.thelocal.de/20180803/germany-seeks-to-make-special-provisions-for-brits-applying-for-german-citizenship