Passport

Little did I know of the trouble this photo would cause me.

The problem lies in the fact that I am going overseas in 42 days, it takes up to 45 days to process a working visa for the UK, and I had to renew my passport which takes another 4 business days (and that's the priority service).

It began four days ago when I found out my current passport wouldn't be valid for my visa application despite having over a year remaining on it. The following day I was in Brisbane and I thought I'd be able to get my passport application in on the spot. I didn't realise you need a guarantor. I left disappointed and stressed about having to wait out the weekend before having another chance and thus cutting into the little time I had.

The next problem I ran into was when I found out your guarantor cannot be a family member so I kindly asked my neighbour. No big drama, in fact he showed me an old Voigtlander Vitessa rangefinder he had purchased in 1956 for the Melbourne Olympics; it was a very special piece of gear with a plunger rod to advance the film and barn-door assembly around the lens (amongst other idiosyncracies). I would absolutely love to own a camera like that.

So after our lovely chat I headed to my afternoon appointment for my passport application. Everything was fine except my photo; a homemade print that was too pixelated. "Craaaaap" I thought, but what can you do? I returned home and proceeded to print the image at 1200dpi, 4x the original resolution, except the printer had malfunctioned...

Dad spent an hour and a half trying to fix the thing (for awhile even the laptop refused to boot) and finally got it to print. Great right? Unfortunately not, the quality difference was neglible and it still wouldn't have passed. I nearly gave up at that point.

Moving past the initial discouragement I made my way over to a local photo store. For a few dollars they printed the a high quality image which I took back to my neighbour for him to sign and say it was really me. Following that I rushed back to the application office just before close and hallelujah it was finally accepted! It was a massive relief and another little step completed in my journey, phew!