Snaps

Today’s passport photo, capturing 39 1/2 years or so of stress and strain. Of course, there’s always some kind of TREMENDOUS HASSLE lurking in the background every time I need to take another damned one of these, and today is no different. I don’t even have the consolation prize of good drama or anything, just another round of unexpected bureaucratic hassle. I love living over here, but all the passport and visa and tax and money issues give the whole experience a never-ending tinge of stress, and I’ll be happy one day when it all settles down.

But for now I have to go find someplace that takes the kind of passport photo which is valid for US passports, which naturally have totally different specs than any photo booth available in the UK, so that I can then go to the US Embassy — who are currently in possession of my passport, claiming it’s too damaged to have new pages added to it — and get an early renewal, which means I’ll also be saddled with the hideous new chip-enabled passport, for the low, low price of $100 — which I’ll have to scrape together somehow. After that, I’ll have to find out how to transfer my UK visa into the new passport, which will no doubt involve more photos and more outrageous charges. Another day, another emergency, another fee.