It is stupid to become attached to inanimate objects but when modern technology finally forced me to ditch the Olivetti Lettera 32 mobile typewriter which had taken me round the world as a correspondent I truly felt the pangs of parting. In the same way I have been resisting Mrs Oakley’s insistence, repeated with increasing vehemence over recent months: ‘It really is time we changed the car.’ Alas the ten-year-old BMW 320, a veteran of racecourse car parks nationwide and innumerable trips to the council dump as we restored a crumbling house, is now on its way out. Mrs Oakley earned double-bonus Brownie points by being noble enough not to crow but, as we sweltered for four hours beside the M3 on the hottest day of the year last Thursday awaiting a breakdown truck to take us and the stricken vehicle home, she was once again proven right.
The one thing I got right was splashing out on a hire car to get me to Ascot all the same on Saturday to see Enable run in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
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