Just as he did when I found myself 'homeless' Tony Denton came to the rescue again when it came to learning how to drive. Tony was only 18 but had always wanted to be a truck driver ever since I had known him and he was already living his dream.

Tony Denton: c1975. Tony would always help out anyone in trouble or needed a hand and was probably the most laid back person I have ever met.

He passed his driving test soon after he was 17 and bought a Ford Transit pick up. He began doing small time haulage and he was on his way. Tony said he would teach me how to drive and sure enough my first ever driving lesson was in the Transit. He was a bloody good teacher mind. Once he let me drive him all the way to North Wales (Definitely North of Watford) on a customer delivery run with L plates up and him in the passenger seat. I learnt a lot about driving very quickly in the two days we spent on the road.

After that I had a couple of lessons with Ashford School of Motoring (I needed to use their car for the test) which I passed, to my utter astonishment, at the first attempt on 15 June 1972.

The SX150 was still running well but it had to go. I could get the guitar, the girlfriend and an amplifier in the car.

I sold the scoot to my sister's boyfriend Kevin for £90.00 or thereabouts and never really saw it much again. He married my sister, they both got cars and whatever happened to PUC89F will probably never be known.

As for the cars, well I had a series of complete utter wanker motors for quite a while. Chief wanker was a Gold Ford Capril 2000 GT XLR I bought in 1973 for £600. It looked the bollocks but turned out to be just bollocks. In life timing is important and I bought this gas guzzler just as the Arabs decided to whack up the price of oil and the government bought in petrol rationing for a short period. The Capri was in fact stolen but bugger me if the cops didn't bloody find it. I would have settled for the insurance money. I got rid ASAP and bought another mini. This time a better one - a white with black roof, wide tyred Cooper look alike.

Mark II Escort: I had several of these as company cars -all basic 1.3 donkeys. .

In 1976 I got a job that came with a company car and drove other peoples cars until we started our own business in 2000. A procession of Escorts, Cortinas, Vauxhall Victors, a Granada, Rover, one Merc and a couple of Beamers. The company car tax was a killer towards the end but at least someone else picked up the service bills.

Dateline: 1973-2007 - A Scooter Wilderness

There's been ups and downs for sure but overall life has been good and as for Chelsea, they are going great.

There have been a number of times over the years when I thought it would be great to get two wheels again. Many of my friends and colleagues are bikers and I have even been tempted to join in with their 4-stroke life.