Celebratory

A bit of a burden was lifted from us on Friday when late in the day Noi received an email telling her she could pick up her renewed passport on the coming Monday. I've previously recorded, in early August and September, some of the obstacles we've faced relative to the renewal of said document, and the relief we felt on actually getting confirmation of something close to success was considerable. However, I resisted the temptation to really celebrate until today. Noi braved the queue this morning and is now officially passported - and I don't care that there isn't such a word because there is now.

All we need to do now is to get the pass she needs for her continued stay in this Far Place, and previous experience suggests this will be trouble-free since considerable effort has been put in over the years by the bureaucracy here to ensure this is the case. I can assure you though, we don't take the smooth working of that system for granted. Exposure to other ways of doing things ensures we recognise the privilege of being dealt with efficiently when we're lucky enough to encounter it.