Hi daydreamer,
Don't get too stressed about the age thing. There are quite a few 35years+ people who have started in ab-initio and succeeded. Search the wannabee forum and you'll find it is a question/thread that comes up about once a month.
That reminds me. In one talk at the show I went to, the main marketing guy from Oxford was very keen that the 'mature' student went the modular route rather than the integrated route . He never really explained why. He did mention something about the average age in an integrated course being pretty low but I suppose it would if Oxford convinced all the grey haired wannabees to go modular!
Anyway enjoy - worth traveling many miles for.
- D