August 2004

Mum had some really exciting news when I came back from walking Wizzie last Thursday afternoon. Mrs MacTaggart had called to say they were taking Genie on a day trip to France on the Eurotunnel train – and they wanted me to go too!

‘There is one problem though,’ Mum said, after I’d stopped leaping around the living room. ‘You don’t have a passport.’

Oh no! We went to Spain for a week when I was little but Mum just had my name put on her passport, which you were allowed to do in those days. I’d have to get my own to travel to France with Genie’s parents.

Mum said the trip was three weeks away so we’d have to hurry because you had to fill in an application form and have photos taken – and get someone to check you’d told the truth and sign the back of the picture to say it was definitely you. Sounded complicated!

Well I was definitely going to make sure my photo was better than Dad’s. I’d seen his passport once when he had to go to Ireland for a Doggydo’s conference and I hardly recognised him. The bright flash made him look as white as a ghost and he had a really surprised look on his face!

Mum decided we should go straight to the Post Office to get an application form. We found them in the rack opposite the counter next to the ‘special delivery’ stickers. Then Mum spotted a photo booth in the corner.

‘You might as well have the picture done now to save time,’ she said. Doh! I wanted to wear my favourite t-shirt – the one that says ‘rock star’ on the front – but Mum said school uniform would have to do. How uncool!

I was messing about trying to twist the seat to the right height so that my face was in the middle of the big circle on the screen when Mum suddenly shouted: ‘Hold on! Don’t put your money in yet. You’ll have to take off that baseball cap. It says on the form you’re not allowed to wear a hat.’

School uniform and no baseball cap. Now I was going to look seriously uncool. It took three tries to get a decent picture. The first time I had my eyes closed and the second Mum called me just as the flash went and I turned round. But the third was OK. Not good, but OK.

When we got home Mum filled in all the details on the form, like my date of birth, where I was born and my parents’ names. She asked Genie’s mum to sign the photo because she’s a doctor and the form said it had to be ‘a professional person or a person of standing in the community’.

Once it was all finished Mum took it back to the Post Office for them to check and send to the Passport Office. Now I’ve just got to wait until it arrives in the post. I hope it comes in time!

If you want to find out more about Brownies and Guides in your local area why not visit their excellent web site:

www.girlguiding.org.uk