Six weeks. When I was a child at school, this was the length of the summer holidays. Six weeks of no classes, no learning, no homework. Six weeks of riding bikes, having a kick about or just playing with your mates in the street. They seemed endless. I have fond memories of those times.
These last six weeks, my freedom has been somewhat challenging. Locked down with my vulnerable mother-in-law and my wife, we have had to take small wins when we find them. The property is a small ground floor flat and we have access to a private garden via communal access. We’ve made the occasional early morning foray to enjoy bird song but also then packed up and returned indoors when we hear the neighbours beginning to stir.
Not that we want to be anti-social, but they have tended to congregate more frequently, take visitors and, the one thing that hurts me most, go for a drive.
Our 15 year old VW Transporter has sat motionless all this time with occasional checks from me, a start up and warm run, stationary for fear of losing another precious commodity around here; a parking space.
Daydreaming
As I’m not a journalist per-se, I only occasionally get to drive a new car, but like many, I do delve into the world of car configurators and dream. My recent dreams have been GT cars. The idea and plans now idle in my notebooks, cover all manner of wondrous routes around Europe, the Americas and beyond. But these have been parked nearly as long as my VW. The thought and desire to just go for any drive right now, grows by the day.
My thinking has drifted from taking a classic to a show or just anything new to see a mate. But there has been one and one alone that I just want to take for a days driving. The Morgan three-wheeler.
I loved the original and when Morgan released the updated version, I wanted one. In green, with an RAF roundel but with matt black where all the chrome lives. I’ve not driven one. I’ve not even photographed one on its own. The appeal is that it is open to the elements, it doesn’t have touchscreen everything but it has clearly been built to drive.
Similarly, the six week school holiday felt like living and right now, the chance to do that in something such as this Morgan is the dream.
While the next few weeks roll in and out until we can be freed, I will continue to dream. Should the day come when I can slide into the seat of a three wheeled Morgan, I know exactly where I will go and I will smile the whole way there. Unlike those six weeks of my youth, I’ve never wanted this enforced break from work to be over so soon.
When the freedom comes back I intend to grab it and hold on tight.
