Have Passport, Can Travel
I can't remember if I mentioned it, but according to the original plan, I was going to be in San Francisco for work all last week. That had to be changed for various reasons and I'm now going the week commencing Monday 11th of next month. However, because of that, I end up travelling within three months of the expiry of my old passport, which means I can't use the US Visa Waiver scheme. So it's time to get a new passport.
*However* - I'm going to Barcelona this coming weekend, so I couldn't send it off to get a new one in case it didn't get back to me in time. And so I threw myself on the tender mercies of the Passport Office's Fast Track application process. I had a 7.45am appointment to submit the application and then theoretically it would be available for collection four hours after that was accepted. I was taking a chance that they'd agree with me about my appearance being sufficiently unchanged that I didn't need to have my photos counter-signed, and there was a nasty moment where it looked like the person taking my application was going to kick off about it, but she didn't.
And astonishingly, I have to report that when i went back to try and collect it about four and a half hours later, there it was. After some of my recent experiences with one process or another (the Amazon saga continues), I'm utterly stunned that the one I was expecting the least of is the one that delivered exactly according to promise.
What is the world coming to?