Speedy virgin

For a mere UKP 7,111 you could buy a VRG1N

That’s a personalised number plate, of course, not an airline, financial product, holiday, hot air balloon, mobile phone, train or any other of the numerous pies Mr Branson probably has a finger in.

For nearly six times that price you could get V1RGO but that probably has a different appeal. Someone with more money than sense? Perhaps that’s why it’s so expensive.

The reason I’ve looked these up is that I thought VRG1N was the number plate on a Range Rover that sped past me on the motorway yesterday. It must have been a different variation of the word virgin. I don’t remember. (This is one of my most commonly used phrases.) Whatever the plate, it was a very distinctive personalised number.

It made me wonder why someone would pay to have a memorable (to someone who doesn’t have cognition problems) personalised number plate and then drive in a distinctive law breaking fashion. Yes, speeding is breaking the law. Yesterday, my cousin told me a way to dodge getting a fine and points on your licence if you are caught speeding. I don’t know if it is guaranteed to work and I’m not going to tell you what it is. And I’m not going to try it. Hopefully, I won’t need to.

I do a lot of driving. I try to be a careful driver and observe speed limits. I do have 3 points on my licence for a speeding offence. It was a Sunday. I was driving from the cemetery where we had just held a stone setting service at my father’s grave. I was going to the café where close family were gathering for refreshments. I must have been focusing on something other than the speed limit. The road was very wide and quiet. According to the (new) speed cam I broke the limit by 5 miles per hour.

I got the notification letter about this whilst I was in hospital for a few weeks due to the MS attack that led to dx. I didn’t care about the speeding offence. I had other things on my mind. I committed the offence on a Sunday. I went into hospital by ambulance on the Tuesday. I'd already been ill. Very ill. And nobody seemed to know why.

This is not an excuse for speeding. I accepted the fine and the points on my licence. I might have been able to pay a solicitor to negotiate my way out of it but that’s doubtful. I was in the wrong. It was my own fault. And I don’t have more money than sense. Or a personalised number plate.