I have just bought my first vehicle. Found in a second-hand car lot on the southern fringes of London, I was seduced by the chrome and metallic green paint of this not quite vintage roadster. Alone in my own wagon, I drive joyfully back to Bow via the Blackwall tunnel. The Victorian tube twists and turns as it wriggles its way beneath the river.
As I start to ascend the incline out of the tunnel, my car begins to splutter and gently coughs its way to a stop. The fuel gauge is faulty and I have to be towed back to the surface.