I was promised many things on programmes such as Tomorrows World when I was younger, one thing I have been on the look out for is a flying car. This model is due to go on sale in 2015, although it looks more like a plane it has been billed as a flying car. Costing £190,000 the Transition is part private jet and part sedan. It has four wheels and wings that can fold up so it can be driven like a car. The car will be small enough to fit in a garage and won’t need a runway to take off. Anyone who wants one will need to have a pilots licence and pass a test complete with 20 hours of flying time to be able to fly the car. Doesn’t that make it a plane then?

Since measures came in to deter people from using their mobile phones whilst driving I haven't noticed people doing this less. In fact I see people on their phone whilst driving pretty much every time I go out. It comes as no surprise to me then, to read this article which suggests police are calling for tougher measures particularly for repeat offenders. I do wonder whether the majority of people are even aware they are committing an offence but one thing is for sure, if you are using your mobile you are not concentrating on your driving. I’m all for tougher measures.

The government is considering introducing a night time curfew for new drivers. Under the scheme newly qualified drivers would face restrictions on night driving and the number of passengers they are allowed to carry. The proposals which are aimed at cutting the number of accidents involving young drivers could also see learner drivers being allowed on motorways and being instructed in bad weather driving. A minimum learning period is also being considered before drivers are allowed to take their test. With a fifth of all people killed on the road in 2011 being involved in an incident where at least one driver was aged between 17 and 24 it is clear this age group pose a significant risk. I wonder whether these measures will help to address the problem.

That's’ the claim of recent research by Auto Trader which claims young drivers are being priced off the roads. Figures show that it now costs around £4,580 a year to keep a car. Taking into account that the average UK worker earns £26,500 and many young people are likely to earn less than this, that’s quite a high percentage of income.

The cost of learning to drive has also gone up with driving lessons now costing around £25 per hour, the theory test costing £31 and the practical test £62. Based on the average person needing 47 lessons in order to pass that equate to £1,268. All of these things mean that young drivers are finding it more difficult to purchase and maintain a car and many believe that there will be fewer young drivers in 10 years time. The number of drivers in their 20s taking a driving test has dropped by more than 10% so there could be some truth in the claim. It certainly isn’t cheap to keep a car but with the high cost of public transport I personally find it works out cheaper than the alternative but then I have been driving for some time and my insurance costs are relatively low.

A new study has found that driving when you have a cold could be as dangerous as driving whilst drunk. Drivers who had a cold were found to have reaction times that were slower than those who had drunk up to four pints of beer. Not only did a cold cause drivers to take longer to stop, it also made them less aware of the danger of a collision and more likely to drive too close to the vehicle in front. Sneezing was also likely to cause an accident as drivers take their eyes off the road for up to three seconds. In the study 50 people with a cold were tested and compared to a group who were not infected. The results showed alertness was reduced by a third in the cold sufferers.

If you are driving in Scotland you may soon have to take into account different drink drive limits to those in the rest of the UK. That’s according to this article which says Scotland intends to lower their drink drive limit. It is proposed that the limit will be cut to just 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. This will mean that people drinking half a pint or beer or a glass of wine could face prosecution. The new limit whilst it might seem quite low would bring Scotland into line with the rest of Europe, most of which have lower drink drive limits than the UK. Personally this is something I was unaware of, whilst I rarely drive outside of the UK it is worth bearing in mind that even one glass of wine could put you over the limit in Europe. I guess the only safe thing to do is to not drink at all if you are driving, that way you can be sure you complying with the local law.

That’s according to this article which says the average cost of car insurance is now more than £1,000 a year. Many car insurance providers are raising their prices as they try to tackle the excessive number of whiplash claims. The average cheapest premium for comprehensive cover was £1,034 according to the AA British insurance premium index. Young drivers and drivers Greater Manchester and Liverpool saw the biggest increases. It is estimated that whiplash injury claims cost insurance companies more than £2 billion last year, adding about £90 to the cost of a typical car insurance policy. i must admit that i haven't noticed an increase to my car insurance policy, but then as a driver with more than 12 years driving experience and no claims discount my policy does seem to come out quite cheap.

If you are looking for a new car then you might want to avoid a red one, particularly if you find cleaning it tedious. It seems red cars are more likely to be hit by bird poo than any other colour. It is not clear why they have a preference for red but it has been suggested that it signifies danger. Research carried out in five cities found that 18% of red cars were marked with bird poo, followed by 14% of blue cars, 11% of black cars and 7% of white cars. Green cars were the birds least favourite with only 1% being marked by bird poo.

I recently renewed my car insurance and as usual looked around for a cheaper deal. My existing insurer quoted me £430 for the year to insure my Ford Focus. Not bad I thought particularly when the premium was lower than last year. Looking at a price comparison website, however, I managed to find insurance for £222 a considerable saving. Not only that I also got a free meerkat toy, bonus.

Nevada has become the first state in America to allow driverless cars on the road. The technology which has been extensively tested by Google allows the car to drive itself using their maps of the route. Two people do have to sit inside the car and they are held responsible for the vehicle but do not actually drive it. The car relies on mapping created by Google’s staff who drive the route filling in the locations of lane markings and road signs. The car is driven using video cameras, lasers and radar sensors.

This article about the electric Ford Focus makes interesting reading. It looks quite good and is unusual for an electric car in that it looks like a normal car. Personally for me electric cars are a little out of my price range at the moment but it does look better than a lot of other electric vehicles out there.

I was alerted to this scam by a relative who recently experienced it at our local Sainsbury’s. They had filled up their modest sized family car and queued to pay for their petrol, only to find it has already been paid for. Their bill which came to just over £30 had it seemed been paid by someone else who had given the wrong pump number. They had in fact filled up on another  pump with over £80 worth of diesel. Although they had paid for some of their fuel, they obviously got away with a massive discount.

It seems the trick is to look around for someone with a much smaller car than yours, make sure they are well behind you in the queue to pay and give their pump number instead paying for a much lower fuel bill. The other motorist is none the wiser until they come to pay for their fuel. They are not out of pocket because they can prove their vehicle is still parked in front of the pump. By the time it has been discovered, however, the other driver is long gone with a nice fuel discount. I’m not sure how common this practice this or whether it has been possible to track down the other driver, presumably it must be on cctv but it certainly is a clever trick and a sign that perhaps fuel prices are getting a bit too much to swallow.

If you have trouble parking then it might not be your parking skills that are at fault it may actually be that the spaces are too small. Apparently the average vehicle is now 2 inches wider than the minimum allowed parking space. Research shows that popular British cars have increased in width by around 16% in the past 40 years. The article gives the example of the Ford Escort which was 5ft 2 inches wide when it was launched in 1968. The modern equivalent the Ford Focus, however, now measures 6ft 1 inch, nearly a foot wider. The guidance for the minimum size of a parking bay is 5ft 11 inches, something which has remained unchanged since 1994 meaning many spaces are now a very tight fit for popular models and too narrow for some. That explains a lot and I thought it was my questionable parking ability

A study recently published in the British Medical Journal has found that smoking cannabis less than three hours before driving can double the drivers chances of a serious accident. The findings come from a review of nine studies which found drivers were more likely to be involved in a collision after smoking the drug. With an estimated 3 million cannabis in the UK perhaps it is time to update drink driving laws to cover the use of other substances.

I have long thought that there should be more screening methods for driving under the influence of drugs. Whereas it is easy to screen motorists for drink driving, police currently have to prove that a driver’s actions have been impaired by drug use. Road safety bodies, however, feel that existing laws covering the offence are inadequate and need to be reviewed. A panel of scientists and academic experts will look into whether a new criminal offence should be created to deal with the issue and whether it is possible to gauge how different drugs impair a drivers performance and reactions behind the wheel. Currently suspected drug users are required to undertake exercises such as counting out 30 seconds and walking in a straight line as well as being examined by a doctor and providing a blood test but as some of these tests cannot be done at the roadside the substances are often out of a drivers system by the time they are tested. With around 10% of 17-24 years olds admitting to having driven soon after taking illegal drugs last year it seems a change in the law could be long overdue.

The recent rise in fuel prices seems to have made fuel a target for thieves. This article claims that high prices are behind a recent increase in fuel theft and the theft of catalytic convertors. The AA are being called out at least once a week to cars that have been damaged during a fuel theft. Thieves usually steal fuel by cutting through fuel lines, smashing open fuel caps, removing petrol tanks or drilling into fuel tanks and pumping out the contents. Larger cars such as people carriers and 4x4s are more vulnerable because they are higher off the ground giving thieves easier access and also have bigger fuel tanks. Fuel theft usually tends to go unnoticed until the victim runs out of fuel or finds they have a persistent smell of fuel coming from their car. Other than parking your car in well lit locations it appears there is not much you can really do to combat the problem.

A study published in the British Medical Journal has claimed that traffic fumes can cause hearts attacks up to 6 hours after exposure. It seems prolonged exposure to pollutant particles and nitrogen dioxide can increase the risk of suffering a heart attack. Although the authors of the paper have identified the risk as small, there is only a 1.3% greater chance of a heart attack after six hours of exposure to the substances it can would still be enough to bring forward a heart attack which was about to happen anyway. It does seem the greater risk is mainly to those who have already been diagnosed with heart problems. I guess what we don’t need the paper to tell us is that traffic fumes are bad for us.

If you wonder why your insurance premiums keep going up then one of the reasons could be the high number of uninsured drivers on the roads. Whilst many of us dutifully pay our car insurance premiums every months it seems in some areas as many as 30% of drivers have no insurance. It is estimated the huge number of uninsured drivers costs claims firms up to £500 million every year and puts an estimated £30 on the average insurance premium making it more expensive for those of us who do abide by the law. Insurance black spots include Bordesley in Birmingham where one in three drivers does not have insurance, with Essex, Manchester and West Yorkshire also having high numbers without insurance. With 23,000 people injured and 160 killed every year by uninsured drivers, I wonder what could be done to crack down on those who break the law.

With Police saying there is a high correlation between uninsured drivers and other crimes what is the best way to track those without insurance down? I guess, making sure people have insurance before they purchase a car is one way, but then it would only work with new cars and not second hand sales. I would hazard a guess that many of those without insurance are also guilty of driving without a valid licence so presumably if the vehicle and owner are not registered on the system, the only way to locate these people is when they are actually pulled over for a traffic offence.

According to this article the best place in the UK to take a driving test is Mallaig in the Scottish Highlands. It seems nearly 80% or drivers that take a test there manage to pass first time. Wanstead in East London has one of the lowest pass rates with 71.5% od drivers failing their driving test. Bradford in Thornbury is also a bad place to take your test with a 70.3% fail rate whilst Leeds and Bradford have a 67.3% fail rate. Some of the worst places tend to have tricky road layouts which can catch drivers out whereas it is no surprise that those with better pass rates are in remote areas. So if you just can’t pass your driving test perhaps you might want to look at taking it in a different area.

That’s according to this article which claims it has been crowned the most satisfying car to own in Britain. Skoda topped the league of the most popular car makers beating makers like Porsche and Lexus. The survey from Which? Car suggests that Skoda's are fast becoming better cars to own with jokes about them being consigned to history. It is the first time that Skoda has topped the Which? Car satisfaction survey so they must be doing something right.

In an unusual story Thomas the Tank Engine has been involved in a road crash on the Kent and East Sussex border. A lorry carrying the train crashed with a van on the A28 at Newenden whilst it was on it’s way to Tenterden for a Kent and East Sussex Railway event. The good news is that Thomas appears to unharmed although he will be inspected to ensure he is in perfect working order.

This is cool, it’s a transparent car built by General Motors in 1939. Dubbed the Ghost Car, the Plexiglas Pontiac is the only one of its kind, although two were originally made it is not known what happened to the other. It is expected to fetch around $500,000 when it comes up for auction.

If you have a bit of spare cash to spend and fancy something a little unusual, then this new Bugatti might appeal. Costing £1.4 million the one off car is called the L’Or Blanc. it has recently been unveiled in Berlin to mark the the start of a partnership between the Konigliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin and Bugatti. The car is unusual because it features porcelain on both the interior and exterior. It’s a nice looking car but personally I think I would prefer it without the porcelain detail, it makes it look a little strange.

This is how two men from Kazakhstan decided to transport a vehicle from Germany. The men had somehow managed to roll the car onto its side and put it inside the van. They then supported it with mattress underneath the car and cushions around the sides. The windows of the van were covered with newspapers to hide the fact that there was a car inside but the van was pulled over when police spotted it lurching from side to side. It seems the men had planned on driving the van 2,200 from Hamburg back to Kazakhstan. The van and car were confiscated and the men ordered to return with a proper transporter before continuing their journey. It s still not clear why they decided to transport the car in this way.

That’s according to this article which suggests your car could soon be able to help you monitor your health. The seat can monitor the occupant’s heart function using six embedded sensors on the backrest. These detect electrical impulses generated by the heart without actually contacting the skin. Eventually the data could be sent to remote medical services and provide alerts of any issues such as an imminent heart attack. It could also lead the way for other health monitoring devices such as those that monitor glucose for diabetes and perhaps even devices for asthma management.

That’s according to this article which suggest ministers are unveiling new proposals on speed limits. Under the proposals the speed limit on motorways could be raised to 80pmh whilst those on other roads could be cut. The Government is looking to cut the number of people killed and seriously injured in car crashes. They will look into how speed limits should be set and take into account the benefits of shorter journey times and the implications for road users. Already 52% of traffic on motorways travels at more than 70 mph with 35% of cars being driven between 70 and 79 mph. In this case, then it may make sense to raise the speed limit, although driving at higher speeds does burn more fuel so is unlikely to be popular with environmental campaigners. It is also likely that speed limits would be cut on roads such as single carriageways where they are thought to be too high. It will be interesting to see what if any changes are actually made.

According to this article insurance costs have shot up by 40% in the past 12 months. Perhaps, then I shouldn’t have been surprised when receiving my car insurance renewal, the quote was double what I am currently paying. It seems the average annual premium for a comprehensive car policy is now in the region of £892, not far off the £809 my insurer has quoted me for my 1.6 Ford Focus. Still, it seems a little steep and shopping around rather than just renewing with the same company I finally fixed on a annual premium of around half that amount, coming it at just £417. It will probably mean I will to switch again in a years time as it seems these cheaper deals are only available for new customers, but I think I would rather do than pay double the amount for the service.

That’s according to this article which says ministers are considering lifting the requirement to have a vehicle tested every year. Instead drivers would need to get their vehicle tested once every two years. The move is being considered to help motorists who are already struggling with rising petrol prices. The Government’s own analysis, however, has found that relaxing the rules could lead to an extra 30 deaths on the road every year. Personally I think a yearly Mot can be an important safety reminder, particularly if you don’t get your car serviced regularly. It can prove to be expensive but in some ways I would rather have the reassurance that I am driving a safe car. Perhaps they should look at reducing the cost of an Mot from the average £55 to perhaps £30, this would make it more affordable whilst still giving the peace of mind of a yearly check.

This is interesting its a car that can be driven by thinking. It requires the driver to wear a headset which is linked to the car’s electronics via wireless technology. All the driver has to do is think that they want to go left or right and the car will respond. It has been developed by a team of German scientists who are currently testing a prototype to see if it could be used for everyday driving. The technology called BrainDriver uses video cameras, radars and laser sensors to build up a 3D picture of its surroundings. The driver wears a cap with 16 sensors which pick up the brain’s electromagnetic signals. These signals are then interpreted by a computer which can understand what the specific patterns mean.

That’s according to this article which suggests that driving for three hours at night can have the same effect as driving drunk. A study has found that as little as two hours continuous motorway driving in the dark can affect the drivers performance as severely as having a couple of drinks. Experts are now calling on the government to impose a maximum two hour limit on continuous night time driving in order to cut the number of accidents. I’m not entirely sure how easy it would be to enforce this if a limit were brought in but surely it is common sense that driving for several hours does make you tired. Particularly when driving on the motorway which is boring at the best of times.

According to this article it will soon cost £70 to fill up the average family car. Prices are expected to reach a record high when they go up another 8p a litre on the 1st of April. This will push the cost of unleaded petrol up to £1.36 a litre and diesel to £1.40 a litre. The increases mean that it will cost £70 to fill a car with a 50 litre tank. The cost 12 months ago would have been £56, meaning an increase of as much as 25% over this period. It certainly is becoming very expensive to run a car but with public transport being hugely expensive and unreliable, in many cases a car journey is the only option.

I have often wondered why car manufacturers seem to spend time creating new electric cars rather than working on improving an existing and popular model. I was interested, then to see that Ford has just released an electric version of the Ford Focus. The new Focus looks like a Focus rather than looking like an electric car. It is not yet clear how far the car will go on a charge or how much it is but I think Ford are on the right track producing an electric version of one of their most popular cars.

The BMW 3 Series topped the list as the most popular second hand car of 2010. The figures which come from Auto Trader found that the BMW 3 Series was the most searched for car on its website last year. It was followed by the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra and Audi A4. I’m surprised by the figures as I see many more Ford Focus cars around than any other make.

According to this article a new speed camera has been developed that can catch drivers for a number of other offences. Not only can they tell whether a driver is going too fast. They will also be able to tell whether a driver is wearing a seatbelt, measure the distance between cars to tell whether someone is tailgating, look for out of date tax discs, note numbers plates and check whether a driver has insurance. The new cameras have been funded by the European commission and developed by a consortium of European universities and research institutes. They are currently being tested in Finland and so far have been given a cautious welcome by UK motoring organisations. As most traffic offences and accidents are caused by drivers with no tax or insurance I wonder whether this might go some way to taking some of these cars of the road. After all these things are legal requirements if you don’t have them, you shouldn’t be driving in the first place.

According to this article a study has shown that banning young drivers from driving at night could save as many as 200 lives a year. Other measures which could could cut the number of accidents include prohibiting them from carrying their peers or drinking any alcohol. Researchers from Cardiff University have concluded that these measures could significantly cut the amount of young people being involved in road accidents. Based on this they are recommending a graduated driver licensing (GDL) system be introduced. This would mean that 17 to 24 year olds would have some restrictions imposed on them for the first two years after they pass their driving tests. Similar schemes are already in force in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and parts of the USA and are proving to be successful. I do wonder, however, what this says about the driving test. Do we conclude that it is not tough enough if we cannot trust new drivers to drive in a responsible manner?

This is unusual its an incident where a swarm of bees covered a police car. The policeman was trapped inside as the 50,000 bees covered the car. The policeman had arrived at a truck crash to find it contained 60 boxes of honey bees. He called in a swat team of beekeepers who managed to calm the bees using smoke and collect them.

According to this article the latest model of the Bugatti Veyron has regained the title of the world’s fastest car. The Veyron held the record previously but this was broken in 3007 by the American SSC Ultimate Aero which reached 256mph. The new Veyron Super Sport, however, has recently reached a speed of 268mph to regain the title. The top speed was possible after Bugatti uprated the specifications of the car . It still has an 8.0 litre, 16 cylinder engine but now its four turbochargers have been upgraded and larger intercoolers added and the bodywork has been redesigned with an all carbon shell to reduce the weight.

If you have a spare £17 million burning a hole in your pocket then you might be interested in this yacht. The 122ft state of the art super yacht comes with a free super car. The yacht has a plush Art Deco interior with four large double rooms, a reception area and salon. It has 52 inch LED TVs and state of the art sounds systems in every room. The ship has a top speed of 43 knots and the supercar can reach speeds of 233mph. The yacht has its own garage located at the stern of the ship so you can park the car on board. If you want one you will have to be quick as only six models will be made.

This was the outcome after an incident in Berkshire when a bus driver went under a low bridge. Luckily the driver had just dropped off the bus load of school children he was carrying and was in the bus on his own at the time. It seems the driver who usually drives a smaller bus simply forgot he was driving a double decker. Instead he now has an open top bus.

According to this article a rise in potholes left by the cold winter have led to a windscreen shortage. It seems that the amount of loose gravel around has meant a huge rise in the amount of motorists needing replacement windows. The extra demand has led to repair companies struggling to cope with the need for replacement windows. Autoglass have recently taken on an extra 200 staff to help cope with the situation and there have been reports of delays of up to a month from manufacturers who cannot produce windscreens fast enough. The article highlights one company Auto Windscreens of Chesterfield which has increased production by 40% to supply 600 windscreens a day. It has seen an increase from 8,500 repairs a month to 12,000 in January. It seems there are some winners from the cold winter then.

I have recently purchased a newer car as my 20 year old Ford Fiesta has finally got to the point where it won’t get through the MOT. Prior to purchasing my new car I checked insurance rates on a couple of comparison websites and once I had finished comparing meerkats at  www.comparethemeerkat.com I checked the rate with my then current insurer Budget through their website. Having looked at the car insurance premiums and found that there was not much different between them, I decided I would stick with Budget to save myself the hassle of moving my insurance to another company. All of the insurance companies had quoted in the region of £300 for the year with a similar excess and a second named driver, a cost which seemed fairly reasonable.

At this point I called Budget to let them know I had just purchased a newer car and wished to cancel the insurance on the old one and transfer it to my new vehicle. Budget now quoted me a much higher total premium of nearly £800 for the year. The reason being that as an existing loyal customer of nearly 11 years I was not able to enjoy the rate quoted on their website. This website quote of £300 was only available to new customers only and not existing ones. A good case of brand new customers only. My initial reaction was that I would cancel the existing policy and then return as a new customer to take up the “new customer” rate. Apparently I am not able to do this, as I already have a policy number so would be prevented from taking out a new policy.

At this point I was left with two options, stay with Budget and pay a highly inflated £800 a year premium simply because I am an existing customer or pay a cancellation fee for my old policy and move to another insurer. Even taking into account the cancellation fee for the old insurance I would still be £400 a year better off by moving to another insurer so it seemed the best option was to tell Budget what they could do with their insurance. I can see my custom over the last decade has obviously been highly valued and I certainly won’t be using them again.

Learning to drive is not always easy but this was the scene after one unlucky driver's second driving lesson. In what has been called a freak accident the driver managed to hit a fence post which flipped the instructors car on its roof. Luckily no one was hurt and the driver in question is now looking to book her next lesson.

A lucky duck has survived a 500 mile journey trapped in the radiator grill of a van. The driver of the van hit a pair of ducks on a country road in Belgium. It was only when he stopped to inspect the damage at a service station on the M1 that he found one of the ducks was still trapped inside. The duck suffered a broken wing but it is thought he will make a full recovery.

Lord Adonis has suggested that the drink drive limit should be lowered in England and Wales. The Government is currently waiting on the results of a report on whether the current limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood should be cut to 50. This could mean that motorists will be over the limit if they drink just one pint of beer and would be the first change to drink drive laws since the introduction of the breathalyser in 1967. It is also thought that there will be lower limit of just 20 milligrams for novice drivers, lorry drivers and bus drivers as well as tightened laws on driving under the influence of narcotics. The changes are likely to come into place only if Labour stay in power as the Conservatives would leave the limit unchanged.

This green Ferrari has recently been unveiled. It is more than just green in colour, however, the vehicle is an electric hybrid. The Ferrari 599 has a top speed of 200mph and aims to cut pollution and fuel consumption. It runs on a zero emission electric motor which backs up a 6.0 litre petrol engine.

From January 2011 drivers will be able to claim up to £5,000 to buy an ultra low carbon car. The grant will be available to both private and business fleet buyers and provides 25% towards the cost of a new car capped at  £5,000. To be eligible for the scheme cars will have to pass performance criteria to ensure safety, range and ultra low tailpipe emissions.

This is unusual, its artwork created on dirty cars. The work is done by artist Scott Wade who creates these impressive pictures simply out of the dirt on car windows. They range from more traditional pieces based on famous works of art like this Mona Lisa he created in the back of a mini to more unusual works like the one below of a family inside a car.

This little guy managed to survive a seven hour long 70mph journey attached to the front of a BMW. Mervyn Draper had swerved to avoid a hedgehog and noticed another creature by the road but had assumed he had missed it. The following morning he found the rather angry stoat wedged through the grille of his car. The stoat was later removed unharmed and is now recovering in a wildlife hospital.

This article which states texting whilst driving increases your risk of crashing by up to 23 times came as no surprise. What did surprise me, however, was that it took a team of experts to figure this out. It goes without saying that if you are looking at your phone to send a text message then you are not looking where you should be whilst driving your car, at the road. Its beyond me why someone would think they are in control of their vehicle when they are texting their friends. On the same subject there is a story here about a truck driver who crashed into a car and ended up in a swimming pool (pictured). The reason? He was texting on his mobile phone whilst talking on another phone. When will people learn?

If you fancy driving something a little unusual, then you might be interested in purchasing this van. It is one of the six yellow Reliants which was used in the filming of Only Fools and Horses. The van is for sale on autotrader for £6,995 and it comes with a sheepskin coat, a flat cap, a market keepers suitcase and a bottle of Peckham spring water.