Thought this forum might like this extract from my book ( Skiing With Demons) - lots of Landie action in it!
..... over the last two seasons, like many Defender owners, I’d developed an emotional relationship with mine – a blue and white 110 TDi almost as ancient as me. Equipped with old-fashioned bench seats in the back it can accommodate up to ten adults in a tolerable amount of discomfort for short trips. There are few vehicles that make me anthropomorphize, usually motorbikes and boats, but Landie is one of them and despite being a pile of junk by modern standards, Landie has a soul.
Whether it’s a female or male soul is still up for debate. Despite its ruggedness and unrefined strength, Landie does have many female qualities. Landie always plays up at just the wrong time and definitely hates the cold. It regularly needs money spending on it, which soon amounts to more than its original value, responds to pleading and needs to be told she is loved before and after every ride.
Its male attributes include making unusual noises and unpleasant smells from time to time. It’s scruffy and unkempt and belches toxic fumes in the morning when it’s first woken up. It also drinks a lot. But men always refer to the vessels they love as ‘she’ so ‘la’ Landie it is.
She is superbly suited to the job of running skiers around mountains and superbly unsuited to crossing a continent on motorways. I’m often asked why I don’t sell her and buy something more modern that would do both jobs but nothing can do the former in such patriotic style. There’s nothing that symbolises Britain’s former engineering prowess and our nation’s stoic traits better than a Defender – with the exception of a Spitfire perhaps but that would be less practical to park and would have significantly less room for passengers, although the machine guns could prove handy.
Many of my guests feel the same. Especially men, of a certain age it has to be said, who enjoy jumping in and out of ‘the beast’, chests swollen with jingoistic pride. I’m usually wearing wellington boots, another great British invention, and a cloth cap, to complete my man-about-Yorkshire ensemble. In any case, Landie and I have been through too much together, both good and bad, to part now. For better or for worse, in sickness and health, we’ll stick together – ‘til death do us part.
Let e know what you think ?
If that entertained - you can read more sample chapter here
www.skiingwithdemons.com
Cheers Chris
