Hello again boys and girls.
I hope you've all been good for your teachers, and Mum and Dad too of course, since we last met. It's very exciting now isn't it, with Christmas almost here.
 
I hear you've been helping Mummy with the shopping Amanda, did you enjoy that? Pardon. Oh, Mummies are like that dear, they don't seem to like passing a shop without having a look inside, do they? What's that? The turkey was almost as big as you. That would be a big one then. Is that so Mike? You reckon the Christmas cake you baked is almost as good as your lemon drizzle one? Maybe if Zebidee calmed down for a moment you might let him have a taste, it seems to be the only way of getting him to sit still is when cake's mentioned.
 
Anyway, Amanda helping with the shopping has given me an idea for a story. Would you like to hear it? Very well then, make yourselves comfortable and I'll begin. John! When I said make yourself comfortable , I didn't mean you should use Janet as a cushion, so stop that, now.

Long, long ago. In 1906 to be exact. In a port which was then called Smyrna but is now called Izmir,and is in a country called Turkey, a little boy was born. Yes Gar, I know Jesus was born in a place called Bethlehem, but it's not Jesus I'm telling you about. This little boy was called Alexander Arnold Issigonis but would become more widely known as Alec Issigonis.
 
Alec's grandfather came from Greece. No Edwin, Greece, the country, not the grease daddy Gar needs to use plenty of in the steering trunnions of his new car. Alec's grandfather, Demosthenis, had moved his family in the 1830's from Greece to Smyrna to work on the railway that the British were building between there and a town called Aydin further inland. Demosthenis was a very good engineer, so much so in fact that he was granted British nationality. So when his son Higson Constantine was born in 1872 he was officially British, and because of this, and the successful engineering works Demosthenis by then had, he was allowed to come to school in England. Constantine married a German lady whose name was Hulda Prokopp and in 1906 they had a baby who they named Alexander Arnold Issigonis, or Alec to his family.
 
Constantine was very proud of his British citizenship and Alec grew up in a traditional British type of household. Yes, Bev, that probably did mean that his mummy Hulda was the boss, but it also maybe accounts for him acquiring that most British of traits, not suffering fools mildly. When Alec was 13 yrs. old Greece and Turkey, who had never been the best of friends, started fighting. This war went on until 1922, and during the final year of the war the Turks made it impossible for the family  to stay in Smyrna due to their Greek ancestry, so Alec and his parents were evacuated to Malta just before the outbreak of a great fire in Smyrna that lasted 9 days. Constantine died that same year, and the now 16 year old Alec and his mother came to live in England in 1923.
 
Naturally, coming from a family of engineers Alec wanted to be one too and started a course at Battersea Polytechnic. Things didn't go entirely smoothly as Alec failed his maths exam three times. He did eventually move on to complete his training with the University of London, choosing this rather than a traditional University because it allowed students to learn at their own pace. I suppose you could say that it was the forerunner of what we now call, the Open University.

In 1928 he got a job in a drawing office in London. No not now Phil, we'll have a look at your drawings later. This drawing office was for engineering projects, one of which Alec worked on being for a new automatic clutch. The car makers Humber showed a lot of interest but eventually decided not to put the new clutch into production. Although they hadn't used the clutch they obviously remembered Alec, so much so that in 1933 they offered him a job there. He only stayed with Humber for three years before moving to Morris Motors at their Cowley works in 1936. During the three years before the start of World War Two he was involved with designing a new front suspension system which after the war was fitted to the MG YA sports car, and later the new MGA and in uprated form on the MGB.
 
During his time in the drawing office in London around 1930 Alec had started racing in a supercharged Austin Seven Ulster similar to the one in the photo here. 

In 1933 Alec and his friend George Dowson started work on a brand new car which was to become known as the Issigonis Lightweight special. This was an entirely different design to anything known up till then. Instead of a separate chassis the new car was to be of what is known as a monocoque construction. This means one piece, as opposed to having a separate frame and body.

The new car , now called the Morris Minor was launched as either a two door saloon or two door tourer costing £358 and fitted with a 918cc sidevalve engine. At the same show Morris also introduced the new Morris Oxford and Morris Six which were basically upscaled versions of the Minor. So you could say that Alec Issigonis was responsible for the whole post war Morris range.
 
I'll tell you what happened to Alec next after Christmas, as I think it must be your bed time now. Remember Santa knows if you've been good and it's not too late for him to send your presents back if you misbehave.
 
Merry Christmas everyone and here's wishing all your problems in 2017 are Minor ones.
 
Night, night, God bless.

​I'm not sure when I first bought this car but the above selected photograph was taken in 1984. I think my mother may have taken this photo as I'm sure that's me in the background.
​
When I first fell in love with this car it was for sale in one of the towns rougher areas and it's image would have been right at home there. It was a very pale shade of yellow with some patches of brown thrown in so that it wasn't totally invisible. I just fell in love with the stretch of the bonnet in front of you and the Snipe perched on the bonnet like the 'Sword of Excalibur' ready to pierce the hearts of heathens, that dared to step from the footpaths of Dunedin into your path.

One of the high points as far as i was concerned was the 8 foot aerial (or at least I think it was) that was attached to the side of it. It was important that it be fully extended, not to increase the joy of the music or it's quality, but only for the cool factor. I had interesting ideas then as now, to what cool actually means, as anyone who saw me wearing my 'rasta hat' recently would attest.

I piloted this car carefully around the roads until the boredom of owning something so wonderful got to me and it was time to pass it on. Who would buy this once proud beast? Well, as it turned out, pretty much no-one. Not one to be beaten I decided it had reached the end of the road and was only fit for the tip. Off I went.

​The plan was to remove the wheels as they had new tyres on them and just leave it there. I was in the process of taking the wheels off when along came a knight in shining armour to save the car from this ignominious fate. Better known as Alan Davis he offered me a small sum of money and duly drove it away.

This car served Alan and his family very well for quite a while and received a nice shiny paint job under his care. They had wonderful holidays in it but eventually he too tired of the old girl. I don't recall quite how I heard of its sale but suspect it may have been an ad in the local rag. I trotted out to see it, fell in love, and of course being the car loving mug I am, bought it back and at no surprise to those that know me, at a much greater cost than I'd sold it. Prouder than ever as this green colour made it look a million dollars I once more proceeded to drive this car around.

Anyway, time being what it is, ambled by until once more my love waned and the car was up 'For Sale' once more. This time we did find a willing buyer and once more it was adieu. The car went off to have many exciting adventures as a staff car for the 'Waitati Militia' which was once one of Dunedins great warring factions. Toilet roll swords and water cannon and lots of riotous fun followed and then I lost sight of the old girl. I caught odd glimpses over the years until eventually the trail went cold.

Long years passed then I went off to the old 'Seacliff Asylum' when they had an open day. There I spotted a car very similar to my old one, took some shots and thought nothing more of it.
​
A year or two later I went up there with a group of car guys and this time i took a little more notice of it. I walked around the back of it and instantly recognised the number plate. I then had a look under the front bumper and saw that it was still painted yellow.

​Sure enough, it was my old love, back from the dead, well not quite, as I couldn't afford to do anything about it, but I know it's housed and warm for the time being and I'd love to see someone restore it. It's sat here for about 15 years after being rescued from a paddock.