Dear DVLA ....

I passed a milestone today: one which I find I am none too pleased to recognise.

I posted my driving licence back to Swansea this afternoon - as they demanded. They even required me to cut it in two before doing so: and thus forced my acknowledgement that it is now useless.  The cruelest of cuts. 

I have held the same licence since the late1960s. Over that time I gathered two sets of three speeding points, although they did not overlap.  I deserved the second set, but not the first. I had one accident in the car: a white van ran into the back of me at a roundabout.  Apart from that a few parking scrapes.

Why have I lost my licence? In a few months I will be seventy. My licence to drive is now issued only for three years at a time. I have been put onto a kind of perpetual probation: served warning that different rules now apply.

Is this unreasonable?  Frankly no: but that does not mean that it does not hurt. I guess it is just another wee reminder that a clock is ticking and that it sounds a little louder in my head right now.  Will I manage to ignore it in due course?  Sure, but maybe not right this minute.

Funny old game this ageing: I'm not sure I recommend it.  :-)