It was really during Romsey days that I took an interest in photography … the River Test there is quite interesting, and splits (north of Romsey and especially at Kimbridge) into a number of criss-crossing streams. I have many photos of this part of the country; and one taken on a sunny day in January, where the sunlight seemed to turn the landscape to bright yellow.
My motoring saw a change from a scooter to a car. I learned to drive in an Austin A40 owned by a Romsey driving school, took my test at Winchester, and passed first time; so amazed was I that I was about to drive the car from where we’d stopped back to the examination centre car-park to collect the examiner (but it was only through an alleyway, and he came rushing our to stop me – insurance, the white man’s burden[80], struck again).
So shortly after passing the test, I bought my first car, a dark grey Vauxhall Viva (the old model with sticking-up tail fins that seemed quite stylish at the time); this was a fairly cheap car, but let me drive over the country and gain confidence. Shortly before I left Romsey I upgraded to a later model of Viva, this time white and deemed very stylish, and this travelled with me to Yorkshire.
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