Allegro, adagio

Whilst I was ranting on about this and that, I see that the Austin Allegro's been voted Britain's worst ever car in some on-line poll. I've not driven enough cars to have a strong opinion on the matter, but I do remember that my dad had an Allegro at one point in the '70's. A blue estate it was, with nasty plastic seats which stuck to your legs despite the little indentations presumably designed to stop that happening. It may well have been Britain's worst ever motor - I don't know, I never drove it. I think it may have been the last car he ever drove - I have a feeling he had it up to '79, when he died. If so, it was a bit of a low note to go out on.

At least he was driving British built, made and designed cars to the last, though - before the "all aggro" he drove a Mini, a Hillman Minx and Hunter, and probably something else made in Britain in the years which are beyond my recall. It's a lost world - the roads full of cars made in this country, my dad in his tweed sports jacket, pipe clamped between his jaws (who smokes a pipe these days?), me in shorts and a little green jumper with reindeer on it, the twenty first century seemingly a million years in the future.

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again

Sentimental nonsense, I know - a lot of the days weren't that happy and we didn't always get on. Yet I miss those times, and him, still,

.