Every passport tells a story

I got a new passport yesterday. I am off to China in a couple of weeks (more on that later) and I discovered that my old passport didn't have enough months left for me to get a visa.

I'm flicking through my old passport, looking sad, battered and mutilated with its ears cut off, listening to Sam Cooke's A Change is Gonna Come and reminiscing about the places I've been over the past decade. A passport is like a diary. It's traces the tracks of your life in a tangible way. The bold and colourful visas from tiny, proud countries, the angled stamps piled on top of each other as Mr Immigration hunts for his page and stakes his claim. Each entry tells a tale and weaved together they tell your story. Here's mine...

May 1999 Jamaica
Oct 1999 USA
Feb 2001 USA
Oct 2001 USA
Nov 2001 Nigeria
May 2002 USA
Aug 2002 USA
Aug 2002 Jamaica
Nov 2002 USA
Aug 2003 USA
Apr 2004 USA
Aug 2004 Mauritius
Sep 2004 South Africa
Sep 2004 USA
Oct 2004 USA
Oct 2004 USA
Jul 2005 USA
Jul 2005 Jamaica
Aug 2005 USA
Aug 2005 Uganda
Sep 2005 Nigeria
Aug 2006 USA
Nov 2006 USA
May 2007 USA
Jul 2007 USA
Aug 2007 Kenya
Aug 2007 Uganda
May 2008 USA
Aug 2008 USA
Sep 2008 USA

Can you read my life? Were you there? Shall we all lay our passports out and see where our paths crossed?