ABOUT GROWING OLD.
You sleep a lot.
When you
grow old (unless you are a nocturnal nonagenarian or an indefatigable
insomniac), you are inclined to sleep a lot.
The cat Shadow and I can sleep for England. It is our chosen sport. He is kipping right now in one of his favourite spots, my old armchair. Background piano music courtesy of John Ogden and Daniel Adni - a very elderly tape - and me here at the computer trying to look as though I am not at all likely to fall asleep at any second. It's our sort of afternoon. Before I do doze off, though, I must relay my thanks to all of you who expressed concern and sympathy at Shadow's recent brush with the more dangerous side of cat life. I am glad to report he is making excellent progress.
ABOUT THE DVLA.
You instinctively know.
When you
grow old you instinctively know there will be no fucking justice. My
Leader insisted we make an approach to the money grabbing political
pawns in Swansea to seek a possible reversal of the eighty quid fine
imposed on us for our wholly unintentional failure to pay the thirty
quid or so vehicle license on our little car last year (Post 259).
I was agin any further dealings with them.
“They've been paid more than three times our annual fee now,” I said, “and no matter how good you think your argument is, they won't give a penny back. Trust me.”
But, bless her, she is still soft hearted enough to believe there might be kindly reason out there, so she drafted a letter and I signed it and off it went and in due course we had a missive from a minion described as an Enforcement Officer saying that s/he had reviewed the information provided and had “found nothing to support withdrawal of the Late Licensing Penalty.”
(In other words: Up Yours!)
All the letter actually amounted to was a lame set of reasons why the DVLA can never be wrong. e.g. “Your driver's license details are separate to those of your vehicle, therefore you are required to notify us separately using your V5C.” (Your what?).
Well, they do proudly boast that they collect around £6 billion a year in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). And now that the Brexiteers are in power they are going to be collecting even more (at least £130/£140 per car per year w.e.f. April Fools' Day 2017 – ain't that appropriate?).
Furthermore, their offices are in Swansea (which cannot help but remind an old geezer like me of the nursery rhyme Taffy was a Welshman).
So the Enforcement Officer's decision (on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport) “concludes the dispute process and we will not consider any further information from you about the case.”
We-e-ll, I never thought they would, so it's water under the bridge.
The future for the motorist in this country was settled years ago with the MP (probably a transport minister) who snootily proclaimed: “The motorist is a buoyant source of revenue.”
Motorists in this deferential little country have been finding out just how bloody buoyant ever since and, no doubt, will continue so to do ad infinitum.
(see W.Heath Robinson)
Happy driving, buddies.
You sleep a lot.
The cat Shadow and I can sleep for England. It is our chosen sport. He is kipping right now in one of his favourite spots, my old armchair. Background piano music courtesy of John Ogden and Daniel Adni - a very elderly tape - and me here at the computer trying to look as though I am not at all likely to fall asleep at any second. It's our sort of afternoon. Before I do doze off, though, I must relay my thanks to all of you who expressed concern and sympathy at Shadow's recent brush with the more dangerous side of cat life. I am glad to report he is making excellent progress.
ABOUT THE DVLA.
You instinctively know.
I was agin any further dealings with them.
“They've been paid more than three times our annual fee now,” I said, “and no matter how good you think your argument is, they won't give a penny back. Trust me.”
But, bless her, she is still soft hearted enough to believe there might be kindly reason out there, so she drafted a letter and I signed it and off it went and in due course we had a missive from a minion described as an Enforcement Officer saying that s/he had reviewed the information provided and had “found nothing to support withdrawal of the Late Licensing Penalty.”
(In other words: Up Yours!)
All the letter actually amounted to was a lame set of reasons why the DVLA can never be wrong. e.g. “Your driver's license details are separate to those of your vehicle, therefore you are required to notify us separately using your V5C.” (Your what?).
Well, they do proudly boast that they collect around £6 billion a year in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). And now that the Brexiteers are in power they are going to be collecting even more (at least £130/£140 per car per year w.e.f. April Fools' Day 2017 – ain't that appropriate?).
Furthermore, their offices are in Swansea (which cannot help but remind an old geezer like me of the nursery rhyme Taffy was a Welshman).
So the Enforcement Officer's decision (on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport) “concludes the dispute process and we will not consider any further information from you about the case.”
We-e-ll, I never thought they would, so it's water under the bridge.
The future for the motorist in this country was settled years ago with the MP (probably a transport minister) who snootily proclaimed: “The motorist is a buoyant source of revenue.”
Motorists in this deferential little country have been finding out just how bloody buoyant ever since and, no doubt, will continue so to do ad infinitum.
Happy driving, buddies.
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