The Driving Licence Issue II

It is 5 weeks since I last drove a car because of the "driving licence issue". Most of the time it has been less taxing than I thought it would have been. It has resulted in me walking to places I would normally go to by car and also taking the bus.
The bus service from our small village is fine most of the time. It runs about once an hour between the village and the centre of Erlangen, except at the weekends. On Saturdays there is a bug lull in the afternoon  with no  service until evening and on Sundays no service at all.
The hardest time was when David was in Hong Kong and I had to stay home alone for a whole weekend. I felt quite isolated and at times lonely but very grateful for telephone and internet to preserve my sanity!
Last week I called the driving licence office and asked about the progress of my licence. There was some good news. The criminal police had approved my replacement licence and the licence was being printed in Berlin. They expected to send me a postcard at the beginning of this week to tell me it was back in Erlangen for collection.

Having made many fruitless trips to the postbox this week, I decided to go to the office and ask what was happening. There are 3 ladies who work there: Mrs Very-Nice-and-Efficiently-Helpful; Mrs By-the-Book-and Beaurocratic; and Mrs Friendly-Human-and Helpful. I have dealt with them all!!!
Today I got Mrs FHandH. I asked politely if  there was any news of my licence. She checked the computer. "It's showing as still in progress, but that's been a while and it should be here. Let me check" She went off and came back with a box full of envelopes. Each envelope contained a large bundle of freshly printed licences. She patiently checked through the envelopes and each licence in them. As she leafed through the cards she stopped at one, held it up and compared the photograph with me and smiled widely saying "That one'll do".  She checked the details were correct and updated her screen to show that the licence had been collected. I signed the form to confirm the collection and expressed my gratitude to her. As I left she said " we're both winners today. You got your licence and we saved on the cost of the postcard!"

Then I got behind the wheel of the car.....and.....it was just like riding a bike. It felt good!!