Three Weeks To Go-------Panic Stations
Without Prejudice
I have three weeks to go before I am off overseas and I can't tell anyone about it, it's so frustrating. I want to shout it from the rooftops but it's a surprise for someone really special. I am now entering panic zone as I had a complicated passport transaction to do. I won't bore you with details bit I was born in Edinburgh and this year lost my original birth certificate.
I also lost my two passports in the last few years, an Australian and a British. According to the passport office I have no record of having ever held an Australian one. I had dual nationality back in the eighties but apparently I didn't nor could have according to the snippy young woman on the phone
From the Passport Office.
I can't be bothered to argue as I have been half way around the world and back with my passport application. Years ago you sent an application to The High Commission in Canberra, it was a very civilised process, once upon a time. I even once left a message on an answering machine with just my name and address and the application came the next day.
You could pay by cheque, no non service if you didn't have a credit card. Pleasantries were exchanged back and forth, you were guided through every part of the process. Now it's like trying to commit Hari Kari with a rubber knife, impossible. It's refer to our web site, refer to our non answering customer service and if you have finally waded your way through to a human voice, they have no idea. None.
Nor do they care and they refer you back to another web site or put you through to someone who might know what they are talking about but they don't. By this time I am ready to pull my hair out strand by strand, I want just one chink in this armour, a simple process to follow, but no, nothing, zip, zilch, nada. I have to go to Aust Post in a big shopping centre and no they can't help me.
I end up just losing it after three weeks of to ing and froing and send all I have to the Passport Office in London. If that doesn't work I will have to go with an emergency Australian, after doing the Citizenship thing somewhere , emergency conditions, visa to be let back in the country, the complications. I can imagine people out there, Visa cards and Visas in hand, sailing through this process, but me ? Not a chance.
It will be difficult, painful, may be slightly dangerous and I will resolve to never get in this predicament again. Everyone tells me it is a rotten procedure these days and I try not to listen to all the negativity as I am already thinking about the flight. I hate flying, I loathe it and get worse the more trips I have. I will have to organise a letter from my doctor about any medicines I have, take spares, worry about it.
I worry as my Sis is organising a hire car from the Airport and think I will stagger around after the 24 hour flight and not be able to function at all, never mind drive a car.
Ian my older brother comments on Skype from Darwin,
" That's if the plane doesn't crash on the way there ! "
This is coupled with news this week that my much loved and respected ex Mother In Law is terminally ill with lung cancer, she who never smoked in her life. She also seems a little confused when I see her, very thin but still at home with Palliative care. It's sad to see her, once a woman so strong, so vital, so busy. She's frail like a little bird now, but her spirit shines through, a handsome face, a fierceness in the eye.
I have three weeks to go before I am off overseas and I can't tell anyone about it, it's so frustrating. I want to shout it from the rooftops but it's a surprise for someone really special. I am now entering panic zone as I had a complicated passport transaction to do. I won't bore you with details bit I was born in Edinburgh and this year lost my original birth certificate.
I also lost my two passports in the last few years, an Australian and a British. According to the passport office I have no record of having ever held an Australian one. I had dual nationality back in the eighties but apparently I didn't nor could have according to the snippy young woman on the phone
From the Passport Office.
I can't be bothered to argue as I have been half way around the world and back with my passport application. Years ago you sent an application to The High Commission in Canberra, it was a very civilised process, once upon a time. I even once left a message on an answering machine with just my name and address and the application came the next day.
You could pay by cheque, no non service if you didn't have a credit card. Pleasantries were exchanged back and forth, you were guided through every part of the process. Now it's like trying to commit Hari Kari with a rubber knife, impossible. It's refer to our web site, refer to our non answering customer service and if you have finally waded your way through to a human voice, they have no idea. None.
Nor do they care and they refer you back to another web site or put you through to someone who might know what they are talking about but they don't. By this time I am ready to pull my hair out strand by strand, I want just one chink in this armour, a simple process to follow, but no, nothing, zip, zilch, nada. I have to go to Aust Post in a big shopping centre and no they can't help me.
I end up just losing it after three weeks of to ing and froing and send all I have to the Passport Office in London. If that doesn't work I will have to go with an emergency Australian, after doing the Citizenship thing somewhere , emergency conditions, visa to be let back in the country, the complications. I can imagine people out there, Visa cards and Visas in hand, sailing through this process, but me ? Not a chance.
It will be difficult, painful, may be slightly dangerous and I will resolve to never get in this predicament again. Everyone tells me it is a rotten procedure these days and I try not to listen to all the negativity as I am already thinking about the flight. I hate flying, I loathe it and get worse the more trips I have. I will have to organise a letter from my doctor about any medicines I have, take spares, worry about it.
I worry as my Sis is organising a hire car from the Airport and think I will stagger around after the 24 hour flight and not be able to function at all, never mind drive a car.
Ian my older brother comments on Skype from Darwin,
" That's if the plane doesn't crash on the way there ! "
This is coupled with news this week that my much loved and respected ex Mother In Law is terminally ill with lung cancer, she who never smoked in her life. She also seems a little confused when I see her, very thin but still at home with Palliative care. It's sad to see her, once a woman so strong, so vital, so busy. She's frail like a little bird now, but her spirit shines through, a handsome face, a fierceness in the eye.
