Milestone

I've mentioned a few times that last Friday afternoon was frustrating and fruitless. One of the reasons for the fruitlessness was to do with my free-travel pass, which comes into effect today since it's that birthday. I submitted all the necessary forms a while ago. Naturally, nobody told me you're supposed to do this three months in advance of the effective date, so there'll be a delay with getting the State pension. I assumed that all my benefits would be delayed, so it was quite a surprise when my Free Travel Pass arrived in the post on Friday.

There's a requirement for residents of the larger cities to obtain a photo ID, which in my case is issued by Dublin Bus. There's a 'voucher' attached to the pass which one tears off and exchanges for the photo ID. I dutifully filled in my personal reference number and handed over the voucher on Friday afternoon.

'Where's the other bit?', the girl behind the counter asked.
'I didn't realise I had to bring in the whole thing.'
'There's a reference number we need for processing purposes.'
'But I've filled that in already.'
'No, there's another number as well, and there's other info on it we need for the photo ID. You'll have to come back with the whole thing.'
'Okay so.'

So I did that yesterday, the rather dozy young guy behind the counter laboriously entered my details into his magic machine and pointed me towards a chair which had a camera pointed at it. The flash flashed, and my photo ID card spat out. I could have used it yesterday but decided to wait until today, the actual birthday, to use it for the first time.

So, another milestone along the road of life's journey. It's hard to believe I've reached this point already. One good thing has come with all the political correctness: the word 'old' doesn't enter into it anymore, so I'll be getting the State Pension rather than the 'old age' one. Still, I must remember to get the Zimmer frame ready for going to next Saturday's music session.