Dienstag, August 23, 2011

My Passport Story

August 23/11.....3:26 p.m.

Today the ghost of just deceased Loriot ,the great comedian, must have hovered over the first half of my day. You would say, that achieving a new passport is not such a big deal, well... let me tell you this -
I left the house pretty early , dealing with ministerial hierarchy you have to count on strict office hours and I wanted to have some leeway, just in case. Smart choice!  Took my old passport, a foto, which I had left over from the time I had to renew my ID card and enough money. Well equipped, one would think. The office for this kind of burocracy had moved since I had been there the last time and the somehow evasive directions given by Herr Husband took me on a little sightseeing trip with not a soul on the road to ask.  O.K.  I made it and the first question, the lady behind the desk asked me was  if I really wanted a passport, because, as she explained, moving around Europe an ID card is sufficient. Probably she did not trust me to be able to venture out of Europe. I had been a good girl and kept my mouth shut.  Next, I handed  her my foto and she almost fainted with shock "oh no, it has to be a biometric one" which means that you are not allowed to smile but produce a grim look, which one has travelling nowadays anyway, with all the rules and regulations which involve travelling. So off I went to the local fotoshop and believe me there were two families with among them about 10 kids having passport fotos made and one boy with glasses either made a stupid face, or the glasses had been reflecting or he had moved and there was a part of him missing on the shot. Standing there for about 10 min. tapping my foot I decided to leave, remembering another fotoshop which I then went looking for only to discover that it had vanished from the earth. So, back to the first shop and believe me, the same bespectacled kid still was trying to get his foto taken under the cheers of the remaining crowd. In the meantime my face must have turned purple, so the sales lady asked the 2 family crowd if she could look after me in between and they answered, yes, if it does not take too long!  That had been the second time I told myself: "Landfrau,keep your mouth shut!" So I had my ugly,grim foto taken and off I went to again battle with burocracy and I had been lucky to catch them before sacred lunch hour closing time.
Now I am awaiting my new passport in about 6 weeks and for the rest of my life I will  produce a document with an absolutely ugly me - have decided that there will not be another one.

Keine Kommentare: