Cruisin on the 5 wif ma pop-top down...

Mid-life crisis comes in many forms. Some find their freedom in a Porsche, others find it up a tree after packing everything in. Mine, if the last few weeks is anything to go by, has taken a much more prosaic form. That of a 1998 Peugeot Talbot Express Pop-top.

The rumblings of this notion have been stirring in my head for many a year but took no solid plannable form until I tripped to Devon with friends recently in one of their campervans. I was utterly and instantly hooked. All of my disparate wanderlusts snapped together in the form of 4 wheels, fake wood panneling, interior storage space, cooking facilities and the promise of a bed constructable from bits of table and cushions. It took no more than 2 weeks to find the right 'project', for be under no illusion, project is exactly what it is - the price range im talking about does not buy warranty or reliability. And now here I am, a total of 4 weeks from that fateful day of realisation, standing and looking back at the maiden voyage of my beige beauty.

She doesnt have a name yet. The big T on the bonnet and steering wheel make the first letter of her name a formality. The rest of it has yet to suggest itself. Tbird, BigT and Talulah (she's french afterall) have each been mooted.

So on saturday, having received the call from Will informing me they were setting off ahead of me and would wait at Taunton after picking Lee up, I packed up my few provisions and headed off south. Well north first. Then west a bit. Then finally south.

Oh wait, the playoff final highlights are on. Ill finish this another time. x