I make no secret of the fact that I do not enjoy driving and avoid it as far as possible. I maybe drive a car once a month on average and will usually walk, ride the bike or take a bus before I resort to driving. I do have a car, but Jayne uses it all the time and that is fine with me. The last time we had two cars was about 16 years ago when I inherited my Dad’s little Seat. At the time it was handy because I had to travel round Horsham a lot in the run-up to the General Election, but when I got rear-ended and the car was written off there didn’t appear to be any real need to replace it. Until now.

As we are buying a house in Scotland things are a bit different. Once we are there I may need to go into work and that is a 1-hour drive or 2 hours by bus and train, and the weather is not always suitable for riding the bike so a car will be essential for the few months between us moving and my retirement. Also, I have been spoilt here by having everything within walking distance. In Scotland we will be in a village with the nearest town a couple of miles away. I will still favour the motorbike of course, but if it is pissing down and I will give in and drive.

In the meantime, we will be spending some time sorting the house out. A bit of plumbing and electrical work and a bit of kitchen remodelling before we move in. That sort of thing. So we will probably be popping up for a few days at a time and it will be easier to fly up than to drive, but would need to be able to go into Ayr and Kilmarnock to sort things out. The solution for us is to get a little second car and leave it in Scotland. And so I now have a 10-year-old Astra for that purpose.

Mind you, after I bought the car I drove it home and it was a lot more fun to drive than our larger main car. Not as much fun as the motorbike, obviously, and not as much fun as our old Fiesta, but quite fun nevertheless. Maybe driving will not be so much of a hardship.

As I do not expect to use a car too much I went for one with £20 road tax and a low insurance group. I did get a shock when I filled it up though. Sixty quid to fill it up! I am used to paying between £10 and £15 to fill up the bike.

At least we are moving to a place with a driveway and a garage so an EV will be a possibility once we have installed ourselves up there.