Alright… Yesterday Gareth and I went to the Birmingham Registry to Register our Intent to Marry… Interesting process. The place looked a little bit like a soap set. Don’t know what paints they’ve used but you felt like you could push the wall over and the admin staff were all actors.

So here began the form filling. Oh, what passport to use? The Australian passport has the correct spelling of my name but makes me subject to immigration laws… while the Greek gives me a new (unsolicited) identity and misspelling of my name but no immigration control!

I can’t tell you how much it pisses me off the ‘Greeks’ have invented a new spelling for my name on this  passport. Ridiculous. It used to be spelled in English correctly then they got massively nationalist and instead of privileging my English spelling, they phonetically translated my name from English, into Greek just so they could translate it phonetically AGAIN back into English, ignoring that it had been spelled in Swedish in the first place! So you can imagine after an umptenth phonetic giggle by the computer my name has become a mash of randomly arranged letters and looks nothing like it should, in English. I am sure the Greek is fine… but fat lot f good that is when I live in England!

As a result I have an entirely new identity on my passport and I didn’t want my ‘new name’ which I have never ever used nor feel connected to in any way, to be on any marriage certificate. Pfft. Seriously no wonder Greece is going down the gurlger, they can’t get a simple name right on a passport, inventing an unnessecary hoop of letters and forms to mangle a perfect spelling in English. The only positive is that as a consequence they have provided me with ample ability to commit fraud in Europe! Which incidentally doesn’t match any paperwork ever connected with me in England of Australia.

What a stupid admin riddle.

So anyway… we used the Aussie Passport, then just linked it to the Greek.

Did you find this story fascinating or what?!