The Cars....

....but not "Drive" Do you remember "Who's going to drive you home, tonight"? over footage of starving African children as part of the 'Feed the World' event?

No, this is more banal.

My car is leased from Motability which is a charity which provides cars for disabled drivers. Part of the deal is that you don't have to remember anything - they post out your Road Fund Tax and they contact you about the annual service. My service was due towards the end of January, so I was reminded of it when the garage sent out the usual "Introduce a friend and get £xx". I phoned and expressed my dismay at not having heard.

After several telephone calls I am going tomorrow after the exercise class. It is a service expected to last an hour and a half and they don't give you a lift home as it is too far.

However, now they offer a token for tea and a scone at a near by garden centre, which is a much more salubrious environment in which to wait than a garage.

Cars

This post was inspired by Seaspray’s post of 14 August.

I remember my first car, although it was strictly “our” first car. Can’t remember the model after 45 years or so, but it was black and had the registration number starting KKK – so of course we had to call her Katy (do you know the song K K K Katy?) Ah well, you are probably too young. We bought it in Kent, and driving up to Scotland it broke down, but we were lucky to get it repaired. The seller had also tried to make it look in better nick than it actually was by painting the “leather” parts of the interior with a tan paint – which came off all over my clothes. Still it was a welcome improvement from the Lambretta scooter we had had before.

Life then progressed, as it does, through a variety of cars and a van at one point. I can remember learning to drive (the first time) while living in a cottage on a large estate. I used to drive the van to the gates into the grounds, park it and go into town on the bus. On the way home the bus driver, bless him, would turn the car round (which meant going onto the road) and leave me to drive home.

I also remember with some horror in light of the Safety legislation now how we used to travel on holiday with the children "packed" into the rear of the estate car, or even van, lying on blankets with pillows under their heads and covered with blankets - suitcases packed into the remaining space. It doesn't bear thinking about what might have happened in the event of an accident!

Perhaps the car of which I have fondest memories is the Ford Cortina 1600E. This was one fast and manoeuvrable car. On most roads at that time, although not motorways, I could beat any other driver. Great fun! I am a much staider driver now.

As I mentioned before in my post on Epilepsy, I had to surrender my driving licence until I had no seizure for a year – this turned out to be almost 2 years. I had, of course, sold my car at that time. It was a bright yellow Nissan Micra and my pride and joy, so it broke my heart.

Now, as a result of disability I have qualified for the upper rate of Mobility Allowance and this has enabled me to lease a car from Motability (a charitable organisation), so I now have a Vauxhall Corsa with automatic transmission as my left foot is a bit problematic.

This has opened up my life again as I can now go to Church, to visit my scattered family, to visit friends, to go shopping, whatever I wish. Because Motability will sell the car after 3 years, they like you to choose a car which will sell well, so I have a car with electrically adjustable windows and wing mirrors, heated rear screen and wing mirrors and air conditioning, not to mention 5 doors instead of 3 and metallic paint (which were luxuries I couldn’t afford before!)

I love this car and so I am a very happy bunny.