Farewell Burgundy Friend

My passport expires next month. With no reason to travel abroad I didn't join the queues at the beginning of summer to renew it. Hopefully, now the queues have diminished, and anyway I still don't need it for travel.

Today, I did the online application for it to be renewed, and (having a camera or two in the house, along with tripods) did my own photo. Before sending my old passport to them, I scanned all of the pages, and discovered that my tourist visa to China had been valid all through the first year of Covid, though I suspect that I might have had a few issues getting there and gaining entry.

So now I wait for my black passport to arrive ("I'd say it's black," says Stephen Westland, professor of colour science and technology at the University of Leeds.)


How much it will get used is very dependent on the insurance cost for me, which has gone through the roof at the moment (making even energy price increases look modest).