What a great way to wake up on New Years Day! And a happy one to all of you <3 ! Yesterday I woke up a Williams... Today I woke up a Mobey. You all know me as Claire Mobey but legally I have been carrying my ex's surname for 12 years, even though we got divorced in 2017/2018.
Why did I wait so long? Because I fucking hate Home Affairs 😂😂
Wow, so yesterday we finally bit the bullet because @aimelidick really needs her ID so I decided t tag along and sort out all my shit that I've been ignoring for years: like my name change, renewing my passport that expired in 2016 and actually handing in my divorce decree to change my marital status.
my 1st passport photo! I think I was 12 or 13 here.
My marital status will take six months to update ... Urgh not that I'm rushing to run down the aisle and I suppose I've already been waiting 8 years to lop off that surname. Crazy how time flies!
but our IDs and my passport will be ready in about 8 weeks!!
My last ID before I changed my name
We had a little road trip out to the Malmsbury Home Affairs Office for Aime to apply for her first ID Card! A real milestone for her. This will mean she will have a lot more control over her own life and she can start working towards that learner's license! I did purchase the k53 learners manual for her for Christmas <3 God knows if I can still teach driving lessons, but I'll have to give it a shot. Only two more to go after this :p!!!
Look! I found my own learners license! I can't believe I still have it. I look so young... considering where I was in life already at the age of 17 ... which is where Aime will be in two months.
While we were there, well actually I planned it that way since you only want to deal with Government Departments as little as possible. But I have now officially and legally changed my name back to my maiden name - which you all know me as anyway. I have been, legally Claire Mobey Williams since 2013, got divorced in 2017/2018 and just never bothered to change it! I was also horrified to note that I was still listed as married on their system, so at least that's fixed now. I know it seems like something small, but I feel like I've reclaimed some of my own soul by taking my name back. Hilariously, on a side note, I have to reinvent my signature. I'm too old for this! I feel like a teenager scribbling potential signatures in a notebook :p
I also applied for my passport at the same time, which was ridiculously expensive, but will make it a lot easier to hop on a plane if I need to go to the UK in a hurry or leave the country for any reason, like maybe a holiday.
My old passport expired in 2016 so I am sure you can see a pattern in me wanting to avoid home affairs at all costs. So, Malmsbury is technically further kilometer-wise than the main Cape Town head office in the City Centre, but I avoid that one even more than the Malmsbury office as it is always insanely busy and overcrowded. I realized that I just renewed my driver's license and I am waiting for an SMS from the traffic department to let me know when my card is ready (good heavens, I mean, who even uses or reads their SMS's anymore?), but since I have changed my name, I will have to apply for another one so the names match. Aaaaaaaah, bureaucracy. I do realise that I will need to change my surname in many other places now, like financial institutions; including banking and insurance, but it's worth it for the piece of my soul that I got back. In the whole process, I had to dig around for my old passport and came across these flashes through time, including old passports, old IDs, and my learner's license from when I was Aime's age!
It's crazy to think that I had already left home and had been working full time for at least 2-3 years while living with my much older boyfriend at this stage.
I suppose there are feelings of sadness and regret as I look through photos of the past, where I was, what I was thinking and what I was dreaming of. It is definitely so, that life does not ever go according to plan and who knows where we'll all end up in 5 years or even 10 (when it's time to renew my passport again.
I'm so proud of Aime though, for following through and doing so well in her education, while helping run the household while Zak was on the ship and I have spent much time being incapacitated due to my injury.
Zak and I didn't have the luxury of well any parents from the age of about 15 and had to figure life out on our own.
Even that is starting to change now though. Perhaps all I needed was time, but I have noted an enormous difference in my stability issues, which means fewer dislocations. Ligaments do take a hell of a long time to heal, but I have to wonder if it has something to do with the samelgutide/ ozempic that I a taking... I shall have to do some research. Who knows. Perhaps in this new year, I can start working again and putting my life back together. I don't want to curse it or tempt the fates by saying 2025 will be my year, but I am turning 40 and perhaps it is a rebirth of sorts and a start of something new and positive in me <3
Thanks @zakludick for driving us through and for changing our car tyre - which is a whole other post - as we had a flat and our jack didn't work properly. I'm glad I wasn't alone to sort that out. It's been decades since I changed a tyre. Lord. And just imagine that with my knees. Anyway, thanks, my babe! OOOOh And Happy Anniversary <3
Here's to 2025
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Thank you so much <3
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You are very welcome