The Duke and I had a little mishap on the way home today. Turns out I’d missed off the insulating washer when attaching the starter motor, so unknown to me, there was a nasty short on the starter contacts.

Got it started in the car park at work but worried there was something slightly wrong. Decided to get home and worry about it later. My plan failed when, at the traffic lights on the main road just round the corner from my house I put the choke in too early and The Duke stalled. Turned the key and absolutely nothing happened. Damn.

Hazards on, first at the lights, stationary. Very embarrassing. Managed to wave a couple of blokes over and got them to push me round the corner. Can’t have been an easy job, ‘cos they did a runner as soon as I was off the main drag. Only about three hundred yards from the drive, but there was no way I was going to get The Duke up the hill.

At that point, friendly stranger number three pulled up in his little Astra (I think) and offered me a tow! Only took 5 minutes to get home from there and after half an hour of battery charging and a few minutes with a spanner on the contacts The Duke fired up and reversed into the drive of his own accord. Phew!

Land Rovers really do bring out the best in people!