Yesterday, Jack and I were able to squeeze in a very rushed hour at the Three Lions Garage before I dashed home, took a quick shower, dressed and raced to the airport to catch a flight to London. Before I left on my trip, I wanted to spend some time with Jack to cover the basics of Compression testing and work out with him how to attach a remote starter switch to the Mustang (more on that to come from Jack).
While on the plane for 11 hours on my flight (for the start of my week-long trip), I started to feel sad about being away for a week and not having time with Jack in the Garage to work on the car. I was experiencing classic withdrawal symptoms.
I arrived at Heathrow at 11:00am Sunday morning, took the Heathrow express to Paddington Station and hopped in a black cab (a 1980’s era Fairway) to Picadilly. I felt that same feeling of comfort and security I always feel in a Black Cab. That same feeling that led me to buy one for us in California (although that one is white–a condition I will soon remedy when I return).
As soon as I told my (lady) cab driver (which one doesn’t see very often in London) my destination, she told me that Picadilly is closed for the St. Patrick’s Day parade but she could get me within 1/2 block of my destination.
She was very nice (as in my experience London taxi drivers always are) and we had a pleasant conversation about my London Taxi for the 15 minute drive. She dropped me off and I walked the the half block to my hotel. As I approached the hotel I and could see (and hear) the parade at the other end of the block. I walked past my hotel to check it out and you’ll never believe what I saw as soon as I hit the street (and that’s why I have a picture to prove it):
A 1959 Cadillac Eldorado (in two-tone mint green) motoring slowly down Picadilly! I realized at that moment that while I have been pining over post-War European cars since I was a young boy in Los Angeles, there were young english lads who aspired to own American cars of similar vintage.
There were a few other cars (all in green St. Patty’s livery) in the parade, but none quite as interesting. Enjoy my photos of the 1955 Morris Minor Series II Tourer, a nice (unusual in green) AEC Routemaster double decker bus and a modern truck I can’t possibly describe any way other than “Fuzzy”.
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