CAR ROUTE 1971

It's 1971, I am 23. Owen had progressed to a car via a second hand motor scooter which he could drive on a provisional motorbike licence, then taken the test to get a full motorbike licence, which enabled him to drive a ramshackle fourth hand Reliant van 3-wheeler, and so he learnt to drive without paying for lessons; and then eventually he got a full car licence.

After spending two years in a Manchester University Halls of Residence I had to find accommodation of my own. I ended up in a flat in a Victorian house a mile or so from the Halls in Osborne Road, but off the bus route. I decided to follow the same progression - though I didn't buy a scooter, as just round the corner was a motorbike shop with second hand mopeds. At this time the market was being flooded with the innovative Honda 50 'Mopeds', though actually they didn't have pedals – 50cc, two stroke, centrifugal clutch, tubular steel frame and GRP fairings, maximum speed probably 40mph, driveable on a provisional motorbike licence. - aimed very successfully at those who wouldn't be seen dead on a motorbike.

So I bought one. Of course I didn't have a licence, so I wheeled it round to the house, which had a basement accessed by a separate door and parked it on its stand inside. The licence took a fortnight to arrive, and in the meantime I would sit on the moped excitedly revving the engine to get the feel of it – it's amazing I didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning. With the licence and some 'L' plates I was finally FREE! I took a few turns round local roads, it was much like riding a bicycle, and then I used it to get into the University (about three miles). It was so light that you could take it on trains, in the guard's van (remember those). I took it back home in the holidays and parked it by the side of the caravan, “Woger's mo-bike” as the toddler next door christened it.

I got a summer job in Portsmouth City Council's Architecture Department for six weeks, taking the moped – there is a photo of me on it outside the house with 'L' plates. The strange thing is I have no memory of taking a test, or of what happened to it – but I certainly have a full motorbike licence. I don't think I had it in my 'Year Out' in London, or Fiona would not have had to buy a Morris Minor, nor in my 5th year at Manchester when I definitely got the bus.

When I moved to London and a permanent job in 1974 I was seduced by the slick advertising (a young architect getting into one) and bought a second hand Bond Bug made by Reliant (where from?) - a bright orange wedge of a 3-wheeler with a GRP body, top opening canopy, and room for two. I think it had a Ford Prefect engine, which took it to 70mph. As I had a motorbike licence I could drive it immediately. I drove it slowly round and round the square of quiet  roads near my flat until I had gained confidence – the residents must have been very puzzled, and then ventured further afield practising with all the other learners in some quiet roads in Fulham, when I almost came to grief. Going round my first big roundabout, the 'Robin Hood' on the A3, I misjudged it and the nose swung under the tail-gate of a lorry. I escaped death by inches.

When I was totally confident I visited Laura at her Youth Hostel, and gave her a lift home. I also took mother on our Cornwall holiday to St Just in Roseland. And there the Bug was ruined – we were sightseeing and Owen’s sports car was parked uphill from my Bug. Pauline knocked the quick release handbrake off and it ran downhill into the Bug, caving in the GRP front. It was still driveable, but was ruined. I sold it to a Reliant dealer in Ealing. They are worth a fortune now.

Finally I took a test in Greenford (very flat!) and got a full car licence in about 1985 and bought a real car, a second hand Java green Mini Clubman (the Estate version of the Mini) from a restorer in Hammersmith, which was no different to drive than the Bug.

Plan completed! I had become a Real Person.

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