A test drive with a twist

Love at second sight? Not really, it still looked shabby; it still looked brown. There was still a dead wasp on the dashboard. But we were looking forward to going for a drive. The vendor drove us (Barbara safely in the passenger seat, Tom swinging dangerously around in the back) along a few country lanes before turning around in a lay by. Now it was Tom's turn to drive. All went smoothly, if somewhat jerkily, until the gear stick seemed to start behaving in a less than cooperative manner. Tom's confusion led him to question if he was in the right gear, to which a distant voice from the back of the van suggested that we may have run out of petrol. Oh. Yes. We. Had. So, there we were, stranded on a country lane with only just enough space for other vehicles to squeeze by us. The slightly embarrassed vendor set off on foot to find some petrol, with a cheery 'Well, you might as well have a good look around now!' Not quite the way I had envisaged our second viewing but we did have a good look around all the nooks and crannies(holidaying in the 1970s seemed to require alot of cupboard space!) The added bonus of running out of petrol meant that we got an unexpected taste of possible future scenarios. I decided that my concerns about an older vehicle being unreliable were probably unwarranted; this being stranded lark was a doddle!