I had to get a new driving licence recently. Apparently the photo on a driving licence is only valid for 10 years, which was a shame because I really liked the photo on my old driving licence. But they said I couldn't keep it so I popped along to the post office to get a new one. It's all done digitally now, the post office take your picture and then send it off to the DVLA people so I didn't actually see what I looked like until my new licence turned up through the post a few days ago.
AARRGHGHGHGHGHHHHHHH! Things have changed in the last 10 years.
Once upon a time I wore suits, in this case a particularly nice olive Jigsaw skirt one (I loved that suit, wonder where it has gone?). My hair was short, recently cut and highlighted just so. 10 years ago I was wearing makeup, not much, just a light glowy touch. I'm all bright eyed and dewy skinned and beaming away at the camera. Very poised, very sleek.
Cut to the photo taken of me last week. My hair is somewhere between short and long, it's a bit difficult to maintain a style when you only go to the hairdressers once a year at best. The blonde highlights are long gone as are the suits, the make up, the glowing skin and bright eyes. In its place, a shambling woman in a particularly unpleasant black donkey jacket (not mine but first thing off the coat hooks earlier), with hair that has been washed (result!) but not yet quite dry so doing that slightly weird stuck down but flying all over the place at the ends look. Definitely no volume or body or swish going on there. I look absolutely knackered, big old bags under the eyes and that haggard look that comes with being a parent to a newborn and couple of energetic boys.
The thing is, I couldn't care less. Things change. Life changes. That was then and this is now. I enjoyed then, but I'd be bored if I was still doing it. This is now and it won't last forever. Who knows what the photograph on my next driving licence will look like. I might even be back in the world of sleek suits and expensive haircuts, with a handsmear of jam along the back of my knees.
(and no I'm not going to post the pictures here. Partly because the most recent one is so awful and partly because I don't have a copy of the old one)