Jennifer Selway
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LASTWEEK I ordered a new passport. Easy peasy if you do it online. Five minutes work and a trip out to get a new photo and post back my old passport to somewhere in Bootle.
On the same day Nazanin Zaghariratcliffe had her passport returned by the Iranian authorities and was finally free to return to the Uk.what a wonderful moment that must have been, clutching that precious little book and daring to believe that her ordeal (which begun in 2016) was nearing an end. One piece of good news in a sea of horror and gloom.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees were online (with all the frustrations that involves) desperately trying to assemble enough documentation to prove their very existence.
I took a moment just to be thankful that for me, the business of getting a new passport is no more than a tiny amount of admin which allows me to go on a jolly holiday in July.we’re all so lucky here.
■ IS THERE no end to Dolly Parton’s fabulousness? Last week, though nominated, the country star withdrew from the competition to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She said: “Even though I am extremely flattered and grateful to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I don’t feel that I have earned that right. I really do not want votes to be split because of me, so I must respectfully bow out.” The other contenders are Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Judas Priest, Rage Against the Machine, Kate Bush, Pat Benatar, Newyork Dolls, A Tribe Called Quest, Lionel Ritchie, Beck, Fela Kuti, MC5, DEVO, Carly Simon and Dionne Warwick.
She added: “I do hope that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will understand and be willing to consider me again – if I’m ever worthy.”
Worthy? Earned the right? I was amazed that she isn’t already in the Hall of Fame, though I suppose purists argue that country music isn’t rock music.
But in an age when we’re all encouraged to claim, “I’m worth it”, Dolly’s confident modesty is humbling. And classy.
■ A SCHOOL bus driver in Londonderry was surprised to find 15 children in the luggage compartment of his double-decker.the embarrassed bus companytranslink grovelled: “We would like to reassure all young people, their parents, carers and school representatives that we have taken steps to ensure this will not happen again.”
Translink are, of course, investigating how the children ended up there. Possibly it’s because the driver told them to use the bus’s emergency door as the main door was broken. A simple misunderstanding.
Or it could, possibly, have been because – when you’re with your mates on a boring school day – clambering in the luggage compartment seems like a really good laugh.
■ JUST OVER a year ago, in Covid times, it was illegal to have anyone in your house. Now we’re encouraged to welcome refugees from Ukraine into our homes “with open arms”, as the celebs say in the TV ads. No political point intended here – merely an observation of the strangeness of what history throws at us.