Classic cars

Every May bank holiday, classic cars purr and roar into town for a pageant. This year, although there were other cars there, the spotlight was on America in the 1950s – think Cadillac; think Thunderbird and Mustang; think Giant Beasts of Power. I donned my best rock-out fifties swirl dress (in my head only as it was bloody freezing) and set off to admire the chrome.




I've decided 'just roam in your chrome' might be my new favourite saying in times of stress, replacing the usual coping tactic of quoting dodgy lines from the film Predator.

I was also over-excited to realise that 'hydra-matic' is a real word, and not just made up to rhyme with 'automatic' by the film Grease. But what is a hydra-matic drive? Is it one stage better than a dramatic drive? Is it somehow powered by hydrogen? Is it... *runs to google*... Ah. Automatic transmission. That was the next thing I was going to guess, of course...


At these events I nearly always get stopped by somebody (local press, organisers, old blokes with beards) who will tell me that it's quite unusual for a girl to be into classic cars. It’s true - you don't often see females wandering around admiring the dashboards. But they are so pretty!



It's the shapes, the styles, the throaty roar of engines – all the glamour and romance of an era long-past. For me this is the attraction with classic cars – these vehicles tell stories.





I am also rather fond of pondering over which classic car best suits a wicker picnic basket. I've now decided it may be this E-type Jag. Let's see it from the front...



Yup, that wins my Wicker Picnic Basket medal for this year. I bet the owner is well pleased. What better accolade could there be?

The other car that caught my eye was this bad boy below. Just what on earth is it? And where can I drive one? :)

Damp Bank Holiday

Today I popped over to the local shop to get some milk for breakfast and came back looking like I’d just gone for a swim in the monsoon season. Yet again, miserable May bank holiday weather has put paid to a wonderful classic car pageant that is held on a field near me – for the past three years it has been rained off. This year it was all set up yesterday, and then swoosh! I dread to picture the scene today – I expect it involves lots of classic cars being winched off the scene covered in mud. Still, we all know classic car owners like to tinker (with the car) in their garages, so this will give them plenty to do for the upcoming weeks.

I really am gutted though, as it is a fab pageant, from what I remember. They have this odd car boot sale to rummage through that looks like someone has tipped the contents of their shed onto tarpaulin – tons of odd rusted bits that only mean something if you own a 1964 Ford Galaxie, or a 1971 Morris Minor. But along with the rusted bits come things like old radios, badges, records, and of course – picnic baskets! I have a bit of a thing for picnic baskets (as you may recall) – the best cars are the ones where a wicker picnic basket looks perfectly at home on the back seat. All other cars are inferior, in my world at least.

Before I veer off into a daydream of the perfect picnic (and the criteria is ‘would the Famous Five eat it?'), today dinner consists of an old fish. Quite literally – me and John decided to explore the freezer and unearthed a fish that we’d bought in August last year. It is currently defrosting in a pan of cold water and the excitement of the day is seeing if it is still edible. The take away menus are standing by, just in case.

So apart from that and catching up on odd admin (every year I bat away my student loan repayments with a swift back hand that would make tennis players proud), for some reason I am rediscovering music of 1988. Not a great vintage, as I am finding out, my top 10 for the year *at the time - very important to remember that!* was probably:

Orinoco Flow - Enya
Requiem - The London Boys

Heaven is a Place On Earth - Belinda Carlisle

Boys (Summertime Love) - Sabrina

I Should Be So Lucky - Kylie

Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson

Push It - Salt 'n' Pepa

When Will I Be Famous - Bros

I Want You Back - Bananarama

Theme from S-Express - S-Express

Looking back at these videos how on earth did Sabrina with her bouncy summertime love get through the censors? The London Boys (RIP) had some ill-advised outfits (unless they were strippers?), Belinda Carlisle's director had spent all of £11 at some Poundland and Kylie looks about ten. Oh how we all wanted a perm like Kylie's... But what I really remember is how much I loved the Theme from S-Express. Of course, I never cottoned on it was 'sex' in the title - oh no. I used to play the single over and over - some doing when you only have a record player (lift needle, click back, move to front of single, lower needle - repeat).

Which car?

People keep asking me when I am going to get a car. ‘Oh you don’t want to leave it too long’, is the general consensus, I hear this so much that I now expect wizened old crones to sidle up to me when out shopping, hissing it out of the corner of frail mouths, perhaps battering me on the leg with a walking stick.

Of course, the reason I am leaving it is as I have no money in the budget for a car, and buying one now seems a little foolhardy. But I do see the wisdom of ‘keeping my eye in’ driving wise, I took J’s car out for a small run the other day and it was frankly terrifying. It was the first time I had driven since passing my test in September, and I scraped his wheel when parking (cue long examination of wheel) – we eventually decided it would be good for me to get my own car to scrape. And possibly sooner rather than later, so I can get used to it all over again.

Everyone keeps telling me (again) that I should go for some practical little car as I will crash it (it’s a given, apparently, with first time drivers) and mention words like Fiesta and Honda. A nice bog standard sort of car, economical, easy to run... boring, dull… Personally, I have always loved VW Camper vans, Morris Minor Travellers – cars with a bit of character to them. These are the sort of things I dreamt about when I imagined being a driver, not a Fiesta. But I agreed with everyone, somewhat reluctantly, thinking it made sense. I scoured Loot wondering what I should be looking at; they all look the same, these little practical cars…

And then I went on eBay.

Ooo… See, J is rather nifty with cars, especially older types with less electrical innards. And he thinks there is nothing wrong with me getting an older car if he can fix it and I can drive it, he just thinks if I crash it so what, get another! (I wanted to remind him of the Wheel Episode at this point, but decided it went against the moment). Well, the imagination just soared… Picnic baskets, driver's gloves, perhaps scarf for hair – oh, practicality and budget went flying out the (split-screen, original fittings) window.

The result is I think I might be getting an MGB GT.

It is so not practical, it is a two-seater, it won’t have power steering – but it is gorgeous, it is what I would pay for a car anyway, and it might be exempt from tax. Nothing is decided or bid upon yet, but we have a couple to go and see and J knows what to look out for. I dunno though, it is really a silly idea? The only problem is I think I have fallen in love with these cars!

Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and planes...

Adapting the lyrics of the Good Charlotte song ever so slightly, this weekend I am off to an air show, that has Spitfires and Lancasters, classic cars and hopefully one of those lovely rummage-y car bric-a-brac markets that often go hand in glove-compartment with these type of things.

I love bric-a-brac sales, especially when they are connected to classic cars. Have no idea why, possibly as I cannot drive (yet), so it is all a mystery. I think I love especially that 1920s - 40s time of driving, as I spend most of my time lingering over those gorgeous wicker picnic baskets that summed up driving back then - when you drive, you drive to a picnic spot.

I guess it is the romantic era of driving, way before the possibility of being stuck on the A406 (or equivalent motorway) reared its ugly head. And planes! I have never been to an air show, but I love classic planes - Spitfires, Lancasters, Stearmans - I cannot name anymore, as my knowledge woefully lags from here on in, but am looking forward to spending all Sunday going 'look - it's a plane! Woo, another plane!' to my pal, who is considerably more knowledgeable on planes and may be nice enough to tell me what is what, to save her eardrums.

See you next Monday, have a good weekend all.