Come on, admit it - you're already suffering from "passport envy". I don't blame you. They look like one of those top-of-the-range leather covers that my wife has on her Kindle, and they're just about the same price. And, thanks to Norway's seeming determination to commit racial and cultural suicide by opening its borders to just about any Third Worlder with a sob story, almost as freely available!
Still, there'll be an extra spring in my step when I pop along to pick up my copy of this freshly-minted design classic at the Norwegian consulate in Belgrave Square some time in 2017. Unfortunately, as I don't tend to go abroad much these days, opportunities to be the object of fellow-travellers' envy by ostentatiously displaying this achingly hip document while queuing at passport control will probably be severely limited. I'll just have to think up excuses to pull it out of my pocket at unexpected moments. "Oh, damn - this old thing. I keep meaning to file it away."
As if the cover wasn't sufficiently chic all on its own, the inside pages feature subtle nature illustrations in pastel shades - like this one:
But the pièce de résistance is that when seen under ultra-violet light, you also get the Northern Lights!
The creators of all this minimalist loveliness were the Oslo design studio, Neue, who won a national competition launched in February.
Hurra for Norge!
Oh shing it!
ReplyDeleteI misread the Telegraph article.
I was expecting to see an elk amble across the page.
Turns out that's the Finnish passport.
If there isn't at least one elk in there, I will be renouncing my citizenship and applying for a Finnish passport - after all, we probably started off as Finns anyway.
DeleteFree tip for the Finns – if the elk was wearing zebra-print pants and a shirt covered in ones and zeros?
ReplyDeleteAs long as we're speaking metaphorically, elk-wise - 1000%
DeleteAs a Norwegian, perhaps you can explain why for the majority of its citizens the red passport means they come from plain old Norway, whereas according to the blue cover, for a comparatively small number of diplomats Norway is still a Kingdom? Has Neue been infiltrated by Republican fifth columnists. Has any one told Harald V of the distinction? Rise up, Norsemen and defend your King!
ReplyDeleteAn intriguing question.
DeleteIn the so-far-failed pursuit of the answer I have nevertheless discovered and can tell you thanks to Wikipedia that:
The Norwegian eleven digit Birth Number [included on the identity information page of the passport] is assigned at birth or registration with the National Population Register. The register is maintained by the Norwegian Tax Office. It is composed of the date of birth (DDMMYY), a three digit individual number, and two check digits ...
People without permanent residence in Norway will be assigned a D-number upon registration in the population register. The D-number is like a birth number having 40 added to the day of month. D comes from the Norwegian name of an authority for sailors, which previously issued those numbers, usually to sailors on board Norwegian ships. Nowadays it is also often foreign seasonal workers e.g. in the tourist industry that get D-numbers.
The Gronblogmeister's passport may (or may not) therefore give his birthday as 60th November in which case we are not four days late but 36 days early wishing him a happy birthday.