Oops might just be an understatement!
- An Australian Passport …. Hold it close and NEVER let it go.
A passport is an amazing document. Not only does it form part of your identity, it provides you with the freedom to leave your home country and travel the world.
For me, 7 years ago it provided me with a level of self confidence that I never knew that I had in me. For me to explore places that I never thought that I would ever visit, or that I has only ever dreamt of visiting. It has allowed me to grow as an individual and to continue to discover new things about myself that I never would have learnt had I not left my small home town.
You are warned to keep your passport in a safe place. Close to you at all times and to protect it and never let it out of your sight. I have always been so vigilant in doing so, but today, today was a different story.
You see, my poor little blue book had a bit of a vacation…like about a 4 hour vacation.
Earlier in the week Laura and I decided that we needed some business cards, or trip cards if you will that included our names and details of where and how people could follow us online.. So being the marketable person I am, yesterday as we were driving the last few stretches of the New Mexico plains, I drafted a couple of versions of cards that outlined all the ways people could contact us, follow us and annoy us while we are on the road.. Today while we were in San Diego we decided to get them printed and while we were at Office Depot Laura grabbed some additional copies of Faith’s registration papers and I decided I’d re-copy all my documents just to be on the safe side.
Alas we collected our copies, received our business cards (which look pretty awesome I might add), had some lunch and headed for a bit of a touristy drive along San Diego’s city beaches and wondered the streets of the ritzy Coranda before enjoying late Jamaican and Kohito coffees at Migaul’s Cocina.
Our new Trip cards… and the instigators in the whole Office Depot ordeal
It may well be suggested or implied that alcohol does strange things to the mind, but pretty much as soon as we sat in Faith I had a feeling.. Yep, that feeling of ‘did I put my passport back into my travel wallet?’, upon investigation the answer was ‘No’.
With a very sly and unpanicked voice I looked at Laura and simply said ‘I don’t have my passport!’.
The look on her face was priceless.. Of utter shock and disbelief. ‘Your kidding me right?, you don’t have your passport?’ came her reply.
‘Nope, I think I left it at on the copy machine ar office depot’ I responded as I located the receipt from the purchase of our business cards and dialed the number.
Thankfully after speaking with a customer service rep at Office Depot, she confirmed that it had been handed in and that they had it.. PHEWWW
So with a quick detour on the way home I was re-united with my little blue book, never so happy, I don’t think, to have it back in my hot little hands (not even as happy as the day I received it).
You see, although I was pretty confident, my mind was still going a million miles an hour and while this whole trip relies on us both having our passports, the only real thing I was totally worried about was loosing a passport thats got all my stamps in it! It’s strange the silly and stupid things you think.
A VERY happy little vegemite tp have my passport back..
xJ
Frolic in Freedom 