Who am I?

I went to the Dept of Main Roads today, armed with my birth certificate, several utility bills, Medicare and VISA cards - and forked over $50 - so I can finally prove who I am for the next five years, especially when sending parcels overseas at the post office.

Unless you drive in Australia, you're a non entity. Even a passport isn't "valid ID" because it has no street address on it. So now I have an embarrassing pic on a laminated card just like all the drivers out there.

I tried to get a "Proof of Age" card a few years ago, and the woman at the DMR laughed at me. "Proof of Age" photo ID cards were only available to non drivers between the ages of 18-26. Later, they changed the scheme to a more general identification card. The had sent me to the office of Births, Deaths & Marriages for a "Birth Card", but there was a 14-day waiting period to receive it, and a "Birth Card" really did the same as a passport, without the option for traveling overseas.

Mind you, I was one who voted in favour of the Australia Card a couple of decades ago. Even after that proposal was resoundly defeated, the government instigated the wider use of personal tax file numbers to do things like open a bank account, or apply for a job, so they achieved what they wanted anyway. Except I still couldn't prove who I was, unless I was willing to study a manual of road rules, pass a computerised test, and obtain a learner driver's permit I had no intention of using for that purpose.

An unlikely earthquake survivor?

Not wanting to make too light of two international natural disasters, but this little plastic "Star Trek" Andorian charm was purchased on eBay a few weeks ago - and was rather late arriving from Japan. He finally turned up today, with an apology sticker on the envelope: explaining he'd been found in Tokyo, at the bottom of the returning mail bag. So back to Sydney he had to go. Seems he would have been caught up in the big Japan earthquake of 2011. (The envelope wasn't damp, so I guess he managed to avoid the tsunami.)

Andorians may not be punctual, but they are resilient!



The sticker reads: "Dear Addressee, We found the mail remaining in an empty bag which had been originally sent to the destination. Thank you. Tokyo International Post Office."

Meanwhile, this recently came back from Mr Kim, my favourite local framing guy:



It's the autographed cover of Dayton Ward's "Paths of Disharmony", for which I was a beta reader.



Dare you take a stroll in New Therin Park?