Voice of Real Australia: Visit to United Nations sorts out problems with Seniors card

It took the United Nations to sort out my dispute with ageist bureaucrats.

I should have realised that earlier but it's not that often you travel to New York and visit the UN headquarters on the banks of the East River.

Did you know this incredibly pricey piece of real estate was donated by John D. Rockefeller, how rich was this guy? But I digress.

I have been blasting emails about the place for a while now trying to figure out what constitutes a "senior citizen" in the eyes of officialdom.

Call me cheap, call me whatever you like but I had hoped on reaching 60 years of age I would be cashing in with my Seniors' card and acting like Mr Rockefeller himself.

Cut price movies here, free coffee there, free train trip or two.

All those years of paying taxes and finally I get something back.

I was boring a random couple at a party about my new lavish lifestyle when I reached the "Senior" age some years hence.

There had to be some payoff for the creaking knees, lost hair and aching back.

Delicately as possible, they informed me the Seniors' card wasn't available until one turned 65.

A quick Google search on my return to home confirmed what they had said.

I couldn't believe it, five years after turning 60 until the golden years.

It's bad enough Australia has adopted 67 as the national retirement age.

Hardly anywhere else (other than Norway) makes you wait so long.

If you follow the world news, there's a big protest going on about the pension and raising the retirement age in France right now.

And the Norwegians don't count anyway, their metabolism works slower than anywhere else because they're all partly frozen, they haven't thawed out enough to age.

Yes, I know in some states you can get a Seniors Business Card while you are still working but have a look, there's not much you can actually do with that.

Now the Seniors card proper - free fishing licence, free international flights - well perhaps not that, yet.

So after a few years to get over my disappointment I lined up at the UN during a recent holiday to New York for a tour of the place.

Wouldn't do to have me wandering all over the place now would it, oh the mischief I could do.

"Your husband qualifies for a senior's discount," the lady at the desk told her while I was still sliding up on my walking frame.

My wife broke the news to me gently, my first seniors' discount, they didn't even check my age - must have taken one look and just known.

Wonderful folk here at the UN. Peace-makers and all.

The discount added up to a buck or two, but that wasn't the point, it never was.

I'd made it, well I've almost made it.

Let the good times roll.