Visiting Lemuria

http://101nights.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/ancestral-link-to-lemuria/

(Posted by Suzanne)

The wonderful thing about Lemuria is that you don’t need a Passport to get there.

Today I applied for my Australian Passport.  Just getting the Application form approved has taken weeks.

The first issue was the fact that I have changed my name.  “You need a paper trail to explain it,” a woman at the Post Office said.  I spent time and money getting copies of my original Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate, Change of  Name Certificate and amended Birth Certificate.

“You must get authorised photocopies of these,” said a different woman at the Post Office.  I took photocopies and got them verified at the Police Station.

I got my photo taken (at the Post Office).  “You must get someone who votes, has known you for more than a year but is not a relative and who has lived in the same house for more than a year to sign the form saying that this is a true photo of you,” said yet another woman at the Post Office.  Figuring out who met the criteria and would be willing to sign such an officious form took a few days.  Explaining the form to her took ages.  The question demanding to know the exact number of years and months she had known me  had us both wandering down memory and counting on our fingers.  After a fit of  giggles my friend signed the form and I took it to the Post Office.  I also  took $208 to pay for the actual Passport.

“You have cut the photos too small,” said a woman at the Post Office (it was the one who’d demanded the paper trail but she didn’t remember me).  “You don’t need all these documents,” she said.  “The Change of Name Certificate and the amended Birth Certificate are enough.  You need to fill out the form again.”

I filled out the form again and got my friend to sign it again.  I took it to the Post Office this morning.

“These photocopies are not required,” said a woman at the Post Office that I’d never seen before.  “We take our own here and authorize them ourselves.”  She did that but had trouble understanding the Change of Name Certificate.  She pondered it for a good ten minutes before accepting it.  Even more worrying to her was the fact that I had once had a Passport in the 1970s.  I misplaced it when it expired and do not recall the exact date on which it was issued.

Eventually she stamped the Application Form but I could tell she wasn’t very happy about it.  I paid the $208 and left  completely unsure as to whether I will get a Passport anyway because I can’t recall a date in the 1970s.

The idea of travelling overseas has lost some its appeal.  I think I’ll travel to Lemuria instead.  All I need is my imagination and my new computer.

During the time I was off line I read a lot of novels.  In a fantasy novel I came across the idea that  fairyland and ancient mystic sites have been desecrated with car parks, housing estates, MacDonald’s and the  like.  As a result the supernatural beings that inhabited them have  left the physical plane and gone to  live on the Internet.  Many, I’m sure, have taken up residence in Lemuria.  I think it’s time I paid them a visit.  I have a feeling they’ll  respond to me for who I am regardless of name changes and the fact I’ve never been good with dates.