Passport

My passport was due to expire in August, so thinking that we might yet want to do a spot of foreign travel and that it would be a pity to be put off by absence of same, decided to renew. So, a couple of weeks ago, off to the Post Office for the necessary form, which had to be obtained from behind the counter - where the clerk was keen to advertise their £10 passport application checking service.

A few days later I got around to completing the thing, not difficult as this was a routine renewal - but to find that my form filling handwriting was pretty bad. Struggled to the end, practised my signature for a few minutes - it being some months since I had last used it - and still managed to make a mess of it. A mess that I thought necessitated starting over as corrections to that part of the form were not allowed.

At which point I thought to go online, to find that I could do most of the business online, only needing to post in the signed declaration page and the old passport - which I wanted back as the US visa therein was good for some years. Plus a couple of pictures of me left over from the application for same. See reference 1 for fun and games at that time.

Completed the online part of the process, getting a couple of email confirmations of same. Both of which, oddly, managed to misspell my first name, prudentially blocked out in the illustration above.

I still managed to make a mistake in signing the declaration, which I could have printed off again and tried again, but settled for a correction, judging - correctly as it turned out - that the Passport Office clerk would not notice or complain.

Back to the Post Office to dispatch the application by registered post, this being, I think a Thursday.

Old and new passports through the letter box the Thursday following, delivered by some special courier service in two separate packets - and with my name spelt correctly. Not quite as grand as passports used to be, but I suppose we have to move with the times. So full marks to the Passport Office for their service.

PS: we are instructed to keep our passports in a safe place and to tell the Passport Office if they are lost or stolen. The only catch being that, in this last case, supposing the burglar to be of the tidy variety, I might not notice for years. I am not sure that I would think to check passports in the event of a burglary, being much more concerned, for example, about Cortana. But I have told her about my passport number, deeming her to be a safe enough place for that purpose.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/mission-accomplished.html.