DVLA,Dogs and Defeating Depression.

Its been a few weeks since my last post for several reasons.

1)I don’t want to post every single day about not much at all.
2)Work has got busy.
3)I havnt really known what to write.

But today seems to be one of those days where words just pour out of my head so you’re in luck.

So,the cryptic and very cleverlalalay alliterated title of this post,whats that all about? Well I shall explain word by word as that seems to be a good way of explaining things.

DVLA – This is a tale of woe although you will be pleased to hear much like a massage in a back street parlour it has a happy ending.

( I started writing a really long story about the troubles I had with the DVLA but realised half way through writing it that it is actually a really boring tale and so I will cut said long story short).

For about a week I thought I had lost my license,not lost as in ‘now where did I put that damn license’ lost as in ‘You failed to send us the correct paper work within the specified 2 year time limit and therefore you have to re-take your test’.
Re-taking the test would be very expensive and due to changes in the law it would be even harder than when I first took it 2 and a half years ago.If I couldn’t pass the test before I fly out on the 11th of May the whole trip would have to be cancelled as funnily enough you cant ride in America without a license.

I felt like a total idiot but stayed positive,it wasn’t the end of the world and I would find a way to get it sorted, I was willing to camp outside 10 downing street in protest to try and get my license back if thats what it took to make the trip happen.

I sent my license and my certificate off to the DVLA with a sob story email about why I hadn’t sent it off sooner and crossed my fingers and toes that they would take pity on me and add the bike entitlement to my license.

The next day I received a voicemail from a lovely welsh lady at the DVLA, I immediately called her back to find out my fate.

Well it turns out that I am in fact an idiot.

When I passed the test the examiner had sent a copy of the certificate off to the DVLA electronically and all the correct entitlements were already on my license so basically I had been worrying about nothing

PHEW.

Dogs – I have always liked the idea of using my trip to raise some money for a charity but have been struggling to find the right one. I contacted two mental health charities as they do a lot of good work with people who are going through similar stuff to me but their responses were not exactly encouraging.

The email I got from the first charity consisted of them basically telling me I am am mad and questioning weather I would be able to complete the journey and was generally pretty negative so I didnt bother  replying and hoped that the second charity would be a bit more supportive. The second charity took nearly a month to get back to me, I thought I would give them a chance so I replied asking for some more information and again it took them ‘donkeys years’ (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/donkeys-years.html) to send the information I had asked for so I gave up on mental health an decided that I would raise money for dogs instead.

Dogs help people who are depressed just as much as any leaflet or helpline so they are linked to my journey in a pretty abstract way that I have just this second thought up.

You can read more about the charity and even donate some money if you can here.

https://www.justgiving.com/Matt-Tipper1/

Defeating Depression-Its been a great few weeks since my last post, I have generally been feeling good about everything,been writing lots,been ticking things of my to do list,not been letting things that don’t matter get to me,been teaching myself to see the positive instead of automatically defaulting to the negative and strangely enough great things keep happening.

I have been offered all the scooter parts I need for my trip for free by a company in exchange for putting some stickers on my scooter thanks http://www.lmlparts.co.uk/.

I have been offered some free protective clothing to keep me safe along the way, thanks GoGo gear http://www.gogogearla.com/

I have been contacted by a ghost writer (wooooooooooo) who thinks that publishers may be interested in the story of my trip.

I have sang a few more songs on stage and people have sung along.

And last but not least I have been getting to know a lovely lady (hurry up the 14th).

Life is pretty good at the moment and although I have been through a really,really dark and horrible time I am strangely glad that life fucked me over to such an extent that I had to decide between sorting myself out and making things better or giving in to the darkness.

So theres another post for you,there will be another,hopefully more interesting post in a couple of weeks but until then here is a picture of a fox pushing a Vespa to keep you busy.