Memories

When collecting a car in Newport I spotted this scooter emporium.

They specialise in restoring vintage scooters and scooters were a passion of mine as a teenager.

At school, in Anglesey, I bought a Vespa for 30 quid off a fellow pupil who lived locally in Beaumaris, stashing it in the woods behind the dorm, intending to ride it home to Southport at the end of term. My parents called at the school at the start of the summer holidays and were horrified to hear me tell them this. It was a hideously long journey (there was no motorway along the north coast of Wales in those days). It took some 4.5 hours, with my parents' hearts in their mouths.

I eventually graduated to a Lambretta SX 225, purchased from my best friend, who's father happened to own the scooter sales and repair yard in Southport, where a gang of us used to spend our Saturday mornings. It was a real beaut, in Arctic White and English Electric Blue and, being the property of the garage owner's son, was easily the best Lambretta in Southport.

I still love them.