Friday 9th February 2007

Hello everyone,

Things here are trundling along slowly and are as busy as ever.
In two weeks I’m off to sunny Bahrain for a week of drinking and pork (yay!), and will no doubt have some interesting stories to tell from there.
Life here is a tad mundane at the mo, so not much to report I’m afraid.

I went to the photo shop the other day to get some passport pics taken, as I will soon need to replace my beloved passport. The new guidelines for the biometric passports are two pages long and extremely anal. From the bottom of the chin to the top of the head must be no more than 34mm, but the distance form the bottom of the chin to the hairline must be no less than 29mm and no more than 34mm!!
I explained all of this very carefully to the lady at the shop, who insisted that it was no problem.
When I came back an hour later, She had done a lovely job, and to my amazement, she had photoshopped out all of the blemishes on my face! It’s one of the nicest
pictures I’ve ever had taken, and it turns out I really look lovely without acne, even if I do say so myself!

Sadly, my head was tilted down too much, and so the proportions of my face didn’t fit the requirements. I went back for another set, and explained that while it was lovely, the key factor was the size and measurements, not on how nice the end result was.
The lady was adamant on removing my spots, and even when I aked her not to bother, to just check the size, she got really upset, zoomed in on my face and stood there exclaiming “Look!! Look!! It’s very bad! I MUST remove!!” I had to get quite tough with her, and when I went back to get them, she very dramatically refused to look at them because they were that awful!
In the end they had to digitally squash my head and stretch my face to make it fit the specifications, and the lighting and background made my acne stand out even more than it actually does in real life, making it one of the worst pictures I’ve ever had taken in my
life!
So, I’ve now got both the beauty AND the beast of all passport pictures, but I’m not sure either of them will actually be acceptable, so I may have wasted my money!

However, speaking of money, I have just set up my new shiny website for my venture in Nepal, so anyone wishing to donate (or even just wanting to have a look around) can do so!
Feel free to donate at will!!

Anyway, take care,
lots of love
that-picture-was-so-nice-I-may-just-have-to-staple-it-over-my-actual-face-Maya
xxx