What's mildly irritating you today?

[Carruthers]

Irritations are, almost by definition, pretty trivial so you have been warned.

(i) I recently renewed my passport and the chances of it being used for its intended purpose are about four fifths of the square root of damn all.
The trouble is that the rules surrounding financial transactions and any dealings with the dark forces of officialdom require the victim to provide umpteen different forms of identification.
It's for this reason that I go down the passport route.
The application fee, photo and tracked mail came to over £100 (c. $128) which borders on extortion.
On the other hand the chap staring out of the document no longer resembles a South American drugs lord.
No, I now look more like an international embezzler and time share salesman.
I view it as long overdue social advancement.

(ii) Why does the apparently mundane task of inserting a duvet into a cover descend into the soft furnishings version of a cage fight?

(iii) Every couple of months I receive a catalogue from Simply Home Entertainment.
I suppose that I must have bought something from them in the past but I haven't got a clue what.
There are usually a number of smaller catalogues and leaflets within and this morning's batch included ads for stairlifts, a prepaid funeral plan and various aids to living for those in their later years.

What do they know that I don't?


ETA Also included was a leaflet enquiring 'Who will look after your cat when you pass away'?