Listening to the news about passports last week I was able to give Ian the full benefit of one of my ‘I just don’t understand how these things come as a surprise’ tirades, which Ian was delighted to note that I was able to spread in two directions. The first, was me wondering why they seemed to be surprised that that having shut down all the passport offices in the British consulates overseas from March of this year (including the one in Madrid), that they seemed to be unprepared for the extra work in the UK passport office. I was just launching into my second tirade which was going to go something along the lines of ‘and why do people leave it to the last minute to get new passports – they have 10 years to plan for them…’, when I realised that I was even worse than the people who leave it to the last moment before renewing their passport – I have let mine run out! Ooops.
Ian got his renewed at the British Consulate in Madrid, but that’s not an option for me now. However I think they have agreed to extend overseas passport holder’s passports for another year. So as it turns out I would have been annoyed if I had got my passport in on time. What I don’t understand, however, is how anyone will know that my passport has been extended for another year. I don’t think I’d travel too far off the beaten tracks on the basis of having to explain to a grumpy passport control officer that my passport has been extended for a year with no form of proof.