16th birthday

[mmjosh]

hi it was my 16th birday today 6/2/2010 and have had a great time but i cant wait till i am 17 to hit the road in the morris

[Jefftav]

Happy Birthday Josh. 17 will come soon enough don't wish your life away but start saving for the insurance now.

[linearaudio]

Congratulations!! All that gold paint should have dried by the time you get on the road

[Dean]

Congratulations Josh.... I didn't realise you were the same age as me.

[mmjosh]

thank you all i dont want to wish my life away but i really want to drive the morris

[TRANS4MATION]

Happy Birthday josh hope you had a good un.

time will fly you soon will be on the road thinking wish i was 16 again think off the money your saving at the moe on fuel etc lol

t4m

[dalebrignall]

happy birthday ,wish i was 16 again ,hope you had a good one ,as people say get saving for your insurance .

[pjh56]

Belated birthday greetings Josh

[aupickup]

happy birthday josh

enjoy your youth,

[Blaketon]

thank you all i dont want to wish my life away but i really want to drive the morris

Congratulations!! You certainly don't want to wish time away!! I don't think we realise quite how time can appear to speed up as the years go by, until they have passed. When my grandfather hit 90, I asked him what 90 years was like and he said, without hesitation "Not long when you look back on it". I was 27 at the time and I am now just shy of 45, yet when I look back, it doesn't seem that long ago. Looking back, it picked up a bit from 25 and then some more from 30. From the year 2000 is when it really went ballistic , though I suppose, when I think about it, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Oddly enough, I watched a video of the 1994 RAC Hillclimb Championship last night (I spotted myself in the film - with a bit more hair than I have now) and it doesn't seem long ago at all.

My sixteen birthday was spent riding my bike (I used to ride time trials in those days) and making final preparations for the start of my O levels on 1st June. Like you, I eagerly anticipated my seventeenth birthday. I think you do well to pursue the Minor habit and it is good to see young blood (I suspect it may hurt your street cred but believe me, that's not important; living your life to impress others is a mugs game). My first car was a Mini and I have a lot of time for the Mini (I have owned two since) and if I had enough money and space for a larger collection, there would be a 1275 Cooper S in it.

The Mini was a little frayed at the edges but it basically sound and was reliable, serving me well for two years. I wanted an MG (At the time, the MG factory in Abingdon had been closed and I didn’t want an “MG” Metro) and it was going to have to be an MGB or a Midget (I would have liked an MGA or an older MG but the car was going to be a daily driver). In the event, I bought a late Midget and I still have it to this day. It didn’t have too long as a daily driver, as I ended up buying a low mileage used Mini 1000, as I felt that if I wanted to own an MG long term, daily use was going to kill it. My parents had a double garage and so the Midget could be kept in there. It was kept in there until I built the new garage at my house in 1993, which now houses all my cars. Yes I have spent a bit on the MG (Quite a bit on making it go much faster than it did when I bought it) but it has still cost me less than buying new cars every few years, especially something a bit more “Interesting” than a budget model. It would be nice to think that in 30 years, you could be typing a similar post about your Minor!!

[bmcecosse]

At 16 - you can have motorbike licence - and start building up some no-claims bonus with that! Fortunately when I was your age - I had a yard I could drive my Morris 8E around - and learn how to repair it when we broke it!

[billlobban]

Belated greetings Josh. I hope you had a great day, 17 will come and go soon enough (16 gawd I think I've got underpants older than that) By the time you get to my age you'll have surpassed BMC'c massive total of posts no doubt and we'll have a long sucession of 16 year olds asking for Josh's advice

[Sidney'61]

Well...I was 16 when I was your age...

Hope you had a nice birthday, get any minor related pressies?

17 will come pretty quickly, at least you don't have the problem that I had of having a late august birthday so being the youngest in the school year, most of my friends had passed their tests before I could even start learning!