Today hasn’t been the best day in the Alstead:Mingay household – we’ve sat and watched our beloved Spurs get a complete pasting, DM’s Ibook has been declared officially dead (he’s in the kitchen trying to work out how much he can get for it as spares as I type and I foolishly listened to him when, after I’d said I was going to plant some tubs up with daffodils, he said ‘oh it’d be nice to have some along the front too’. I have ended up nearly breaking my back and certainly making myself ache so much I’m now walking like Quasimodo planting the bloody things.

We did have a little bit of respite, when we popped off to see our friend who make wonderful things out of wood, to see if he could make us a chest of drawers that would match our existing one. He’s a really nice guy and his workshop is a very nice place to spend a few minutes – lots and lots of beautiful wood, all waiting to be fondled by me.

As we swung the car around the back of his workshop, we came across this sight and I decided it would be perfect for my shot today. By pure coincidence, we’d watched ‘Herbie Fully Loaded’ last night on the telly (DM had seen it already courtesy of Pete and Erica’s DVD but I’d been away when he’d watched it).

I have a sneaking soft spot for Herbie films – I know they’re meant for kids and I know that I’m a middle-aged woman but nonetheless I love them all. I’d fully expected to hate this one because I’d got it into my head it was a new beetle in the film and that would not have done at all – sorry but there is no contest between new and old here – old gets it every time.

So, far from hating it, I thought it was really good – all the good elements of a Herbie film, a bit of romance for car and driver, a bad guy who gets his comeuppance, an animated Herbie and lots of race action. When we came across this one, it reminded me of Herbie at the start of the film – that bit was really upsetting – I nearly cried (and I’ll let you into a little secret, I DID cry later on in the film, how pathetic does that make me????)

I hope this bug gets some tlc – the very fact that it’s got a tarpaulin partly covering it suggests it may be about to get a new lease of life. DM tells me the wheels are special ones – designed as part of the celebration that there had been more bugs made than Model T Fords…..they had made more than 15 million of them by Feb 72 - this model is called the Marathon! (BTW - I cribbed this fact from his book!)

Don't bother checking out last year's entry for the pic - it's one of my worst....but as I've said many a time it's not just about the pics for me!