Today Rosie and I were going to go to Plymouth. Rosie drove round to my house for about 10.45. We filled up with petroleum spirit at Sainsburys Alphington, and headed for the A38. I was nursing the car along, remembering only too well that it has a habit of breaking when I sit behind the wheel. I even eased off the gas on a steep hill so as not to stress the engine. Reaching the top of the hill and feeling smug about my cautious driving style, we started to coast downhill. A mild smell of burning rubber was wafting around the cabin, but nothing to write home about, and certainly nothing to blog about... But it persisted for a mile or so. So we pulled off at the next junction, and stopped in a layby/dirtbank. As we stopped the smell got really strong and quite a serious puff of smoke came up from the engine compartment. So we dived out. Thinking something spectacular was going to happen we stood back a bit, but after a minute, it was obvious nothing else was going to happen. So we lifted the bonnet and had a look. But all the belts I could see seemed to be all there and ok. The tyres were fine. And being not very mechanically minded, I couldn't think of any other rubber bits. And as there was no smoke you couldn't tell where it was coming from. It was the driver's side though, I think. One thing's for sure though, the exhaust blows more at the front than the wind on Dartmoor. We thought we'd nurse it to Teignmouth, which was about 3.5 miles to the East. It made it no problem and has been fine since.

So, all those drawings I've scribbled of the Panda with smoke coming out of the bonnet were not too far from the truth. A little too ironic.

Anyway, Teignmouth was good. Rosie liked the charity shops. She's not that discerning about them though. Basically, as long as they exist, she's pleased. We had lunch and then drove to Torquay, which Rosie took a shine to. She bought a sort of cardigan sort of wool looking looseknit item. It's off-white. But not much off. It was criminally cheap.

Must take the Panda for another trundle at 'speed' soon. See if anything else burns. Hopefully something random happened like something flew up from the road or something. I might get the train to Cheltenham on the 30th though.