Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Wherefore art thou, driving license?

I could really do with my driving license back now.

It's frustrating having to depend on people to drive me around. And I miss it, I love driving. I couldn't wait to start learning to drive as a teenager and have never understood why some people don't like it. Growing up in rural North Yorkshire, being able to drive meant freedom. It feels like about time I had that freedom back.

I've been a bit eager with reapplying for my license. The minimum you (or me) have to give it up for is six months, post my particular type of surgery for my particular type of tumour. The rules say you can send in an application up to eight weeks before your six monthiversary (not their official terminology), so I applied seven weeks and six days before the 24th April. Countdown.

There are some hoops, as you can imagine. I'm not quite sure what all the factors are, but it isn't uncommon for the minimum term to be increased. In fact the average is apparently a year or more, so my fingers are firmly crossed.

One potential problem is that my original biopsy report said I had seizures before diagnosis, mistakenly as I've never had a fit. Although this has been addressed in my records, if the DVLA see the wrong version and think I've had a fit, then the minimum term suddenly explodes. It'll all be sorted in the end of course, but given that letters and stamps (bonkers) is the only method of communication, and the DVLA require a six week turn around time for each query, it can soon build up.

And I'm getting impatient!

Thank goodness I surrendered my license though - if they retrospectively take it away, then you need to take a driving test again to get it back. As if! I still have nightmares about the first time. And the second...




p.s. I have now been schooled on the correct meaning of wherefore, as used in the title of this post. See here for record of my embarrassment.