BEETLING ABOUT

Back in my more adventurous days I used to own a VW mini bus, felt like I was king of the road buzzing around Germany, Denmark, over the sea from Rotterdam or Zeebruger to Blighty, that van and I had some good times! I always used to have to park it. Facing down a slight gradient as every morning I would need to push start it, never found it much of a problem but I did wonder what would happen on my trips over the channel as you can't very well ask the Captain on these car ferries to park you on a hill. As it happens, every time I went to start it on the ship the engine would purr ( purr!!! Its a Beetle on steroids) into life on the first turn of the key, must have liked the salty air, by the time you'd get to customs the damn thing would give up and demand a shove.