TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

12:04 PM
Posted by jodi rose

I have my identity back!!
After a long kafkaesque ordeal with various forms of beauracracy taking up all of Monday, starting with being left at abc reception like an unwanted parcel until i could locate someone to let me in. Then bugged the lovely sarah for a security pass, as I had thought it was all in train but nothing was arranged. So, now I have my lovely padded quiet dark room to sit and contemplate border music in - wrote down ideas somewhere, it feels like a very long time ago I was on that bridge guard gig. It's one of the keystones in my life, and very comforting, being able to stroll these grey corridors and chat with colleagues, go for lunch and 'make great radio' ;)

Although I wouldn't like to be back in an office full-time, but for a brief respite from constant chaos it makes a welcome sanctuary. Even found my special 'decline the fire' herbal tea from chinatown, a few (freeland independently commissioned)_projects ago. It promises to 'improve the looks, eliminate poison, decline the fire, promote the metabolism, regulate the endocrine system, treat throat, tonsil and prostate gland inflammation'. everyone needs a miracle tea!

So, after wrangling my way back into my place of random employment, I set out across the road for the passport office, confident that my application was complete and it would go smoothly. Oh no. After waiting an hour, I had to get a bus to town hall for the new medicare receipt (ok, I needed it anyway but was annoying), then got back in the queue and the next person who 'helped' me advised that as my birth certificate wasn't in the same name as all my other ID and all my previous passports (the ones not stolen - buried somewhere deep in storage and obstinately refusing to be found) - I would have to get an official change of name certificate. Luckily, births deaths and marriages was just around the corner, but it was almost 3pm and with a public holiday next day, things were looking grim for my urgent application.
Then fate smiled once again, an old friend from one-tel now works at the counter for name changes (and marriage licenses... you never know) and he made the extremely frustrating process much more bearable, which didn't stop me bitterly resenting the fact I was being made to go through all this rigmarole. Look, everyone has to, he told me, the legislation was changed in 1996 - so, even though I haven't used the surname 'shaw' that appears on my birth certificate since I was 7, and have absolutely nothing in that name, including all my bank accounts and three former passports, I had to formally change it. Quite excited to discover my paternal great-grandparent was from scotland, that explains the current inclination. Maybe. Was tempted to go with something ridiculous, like surname: sonicartstar first name: jodirose, but in the end stuck with the name I actually use.

So, I have a fresh sparkling new identity, which is pretty much the same as the old one, but with a lot less immigration stamps to show for all my travels. Ah, well, just have to build them up again. Definitely a reason to take the silja line cruise from helsinki to stockholm, although it won't be the same without the 700 media artists on board, just drunk finns and swedes letting loose in international waters. Apparently the government here is considering introducing compulsory ID cards - which they've been wanting to do for some time - but the 'combat terrorism and welfare fraud' argument is probably hard to argue against in the current political climate.

Ah well, shades of a totalitarian state, when big brother was more ominous than a reality tv show - although maybe that's equally horrifying in terms of social control and disintegration. Well, back to Slovakia for me, where at least the corruption is admitted and fairly obvious, but some freedom of speech and social welfare conditions actually seem to be improving. It's so depressing coming back to a beloved home country that has thrown out so many of the principles of a just, fair and tolerant society and is overwhelmingly geared towards the wealthy and conservative. New workplace relations laws are already doing immense damage - anecdotally - to the stability and standard of living, and we're still so smug about what a great place this is to live.

Anyway, time for me to get back to some art. Having a somewhat trying experience with my current major project, being told that all the tech will be looked after to my specs, and now find I have to run around sourcing and chasing things up, then get the budget approved. Still, ultimately it is very very exciting and the start of a whole new level of sonic bridge building, so I won't complain too much.
Except to say that being a free-form nomadic artstar is all very well, lots of fun, travel, wonderful people, engaging creative work, but living out of a suitcase on a friend's floor is not the most glamorous or grounded base for a burgeoning professional career! Ah well, at least it's a familiar location, I can walk everywhere and start getting fit again - three days this week, around the park, lots of pelicans in the lake, and an eel thrashing around this morning - and go to badde manors for coffee, and a nostalgia trip (last of my waitressing days), and where I can believe six impossible things before breakfast.