Well, it’s been another sunny weekend, and today saw a couple of trips out for absolutely no reason at all! Mileage now up to a whopping 933329, which by my reckoning means we did 26 miles today – a new recent record! That’s more miles than we covered in the whole of 2014-2017! Slight concerns about the battery since the breakdown on Friday have undermined confidence a bit – Java not missing a beat since the MOT perhaps made me a bit cocky about the reliability of an ancient car.

I used to have to push the damn thing all the time. ALL the time. It didn’t care how important my journey was, how hard it was raining or just how dangerous a place we were in. Friday was a stunning example of exactly that – middle lane of the motorway and it just instantly died! But then, about another 20ft and there would have been no hard shoulder. Every cloud.

The first trip out was just a quick blast around the village to check it wasn’t going to die immediately. Once that OK we ventured a little further – taking in a few country roads and a bit of Dual carriageway at 55mph. Saw some little kids pointing and smiling as they realised the cars they draw really exist!

Then we stopped to take a few pictures – The Java Green Machine (JGM™) is looking pretty good with the BRMs, and the new seats make such a difference. I must have spent £10K on the car in the 21 years I’ve owned it, but the seats have to be the single best move I’ve made.

I had planned to have the car fully restored, but I’m starting to quite like all the little imperfections… so we’ll see. The interior definitely needs a lift regardless – it’s a bit of a shed if we’re honest. I asked the guys to sort out the seatbelts in the back to make the car less of a deathtrap, they responded by removing them completely and leaving them in a bag behind the back seat. I can’t figure out whether that meets the letter of the request, if doesn’t really meet the spirit!

So on the pretty much immediate list – the seatbelts. Brilliantly the mounts didn’t get removed from the front seats, so I have more than I need there – the whole car still has 4 belts, just only on two seats! It also needs a radio.

Although the name makes me laugh the ‘Anker’ bluetooth speaker (W is silent) isn’t enough to get over the roar of the engine.

I think me and the ’64 are friends again.