Fabulously funky

Another day, another recharging station for the Tesla all-electric car I have on test. Heading down to Rye for a couple of days, I routed via the M20 Services at Maidstone to use one of the fast charging points located there. First I had to run the gauntlet of a pleasantly busybody onlooker, who told me that I was parking in the wrong place 'because that's obviously not an electric car'. When I assured him that it was, a long conversation - or rather a quiz session about the Tesla - swiftly followed.

Not having used this particular type of charge point before, it took a few minutes to sort out the procedure, and struggle with reading a faint control screen in bright sunshine, but soon the Tesla was hooked up and taking on power. After 40 minutes I had an extra 52 miles of range. Result.

Rye is quaintly beautiful with its narrow cobbled streets and profusion of historic architecture. There were many things I could have blipped, but then this MINI with its special paint job caught my eye. It was irresistible.