My British passport needed renewing this month. I went to the British embassy in Zagreb a month ago or so, but I was told there that the only way about it was by way of the World Wide Web. As of late, one office deals with all such requests from anywhere around the world. And so I went to the right page on the web, and paid more than a hundred pounds sterling for the privilege. The same day, I sent them a signed form picked up from the web, a couple of recent mugshots of mine, and the old passport. The new passport arrived by courier in less than a fortnight. I got a call from DHL late last month, and the package reached me a day later. I was quite impressed. The next day I went to Zagreb, where I got a call from DHL once again. Another parcel was waiting for my return to Motovun. As soon as I returned home yesterday, I called the company. The parcel was delivered this morning, and I was eager to see what was in it. But I was amazed to discover my old British passport together with a note to the effect that my application for a new passport was successful. Eager as I am to report every instance of bureaucratic idiocy in Croatia, here was a perfect case of bureaucratic idiocy in Britain. The old and new passport could have been sent to me in the very same package at roughly half the price. Which is perhaps why the privilege cost me more than a hundred pounds sterling. A perfect case of bureaucratic idiocy, too.