Happy Birthday Annie

Annie today

On 13th February 1985, my long wheel based, series III Land Rover ‘Annie’ was first registered with the DVLA. We have no idea what colour or specification she was when she left the factory and we can only speculate from clues found around her bodywork, on her initial employment (which we believe was as a tow truck) but these days, she is a much loved marine blue, truck cab with a 3/4 length tilt (canvas) over her load bed

I still remember my misgivings when, back in 2011, Mud announced that after careful consideration and much trawling of the internet, he had come to the conclusion that the ideal car for me was a Series Land Rover. 

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Landy in miniature (updated)

By far one of the best ‘free hand’ models that Mud has ever made from Lego, has to be his representation of a classic Series 2 Land Rover, using green bricks and subsequently adding a white hard top. Personally I feel the end result was pretty good, although it took some time to make as, without a set of instructions to work from, he had to work out what he needed and then try and find appropriate bricks amongst the thousands contained within the Lego boxes.

Eventually, his perseverance paid off and we ended up with this cute little mini ‘Ciggy’, complete with fold down windscreen, bonnet mounted wheel (sadly not the delux bonnet though) and a tow hook on the back.

Lego and Land Rovers …. just another Sunday

Even at my age, I find building with Lego really therapeutic, relaxing and down right satisfying . Rummaging around in a box or three of bricks, creating something out of nothing and then sitting back and surveying my efforts with a relaxed sense of satisfaction.

It’s not often that I get the chance to indulge my thwarted architect side but last night I designed and built what I thought was a pretty impressive, eight stall stable block for my youngest daughter, complete with water buckets, hay in mangers, hay loft and tack room! Of course ultimately, it would be Little Mudlet who would decide on how successful my build was and I would have to wait until morning to get her considered opinion on things.

Annie gets a hard top

The main reason behind the purchase of Annie has always been that, as a 109” Land Rover, she is the natural successor to our Jap’ pick-up truck which is fast approaching terminal status and should have retired 12-18 months ago.

As a truck cab, Annie was unable to fulfil her full potential as a family car and so Mud has been on the look out for either a full tilt (canvas soft top with windows to you and me), forward facing seats and 2 bench seats for good measure, in the load bed or a hardtop with seats as mentioned.

The Land Rover Owners wife converted ……

When Mud first suggested getting another old Land Rover but this time for me to use, I have to admit that I wasn’t totally enamoured of the idea, mostly due to the fact that he had spent the best part of the last 10 years telling me how unreliable they are and how uncomfortable they are to drive. Things didn’t improve much when he told me that he had found the perfect vehicle – a 109 inch Series III. In case you’re wondering, that equates to an incredibly long and heavy vehicle, with no power steering.

He had also spent a fair amount of time since buying Ciggy, explaining to me how dangerous it is to drive an old Land Rover like I would the Jap truck, as they were completely different animals.

“Drive a Land Rover like the truck and you’ll kill yourself”, he said which, you have to admit, wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring.

New fuel tank for Annie

It’s a job that we have been putting off for a while but with Annies’ MOT just days away, Mud and I finally had no choice but to get on with fitting her new fuel tank.

We knew when we bought Annie that her existing tank was unlikely to pass the next MOT due to the amount of corrosion that was on it and so we decided to bite the bullet and buy her a brand new one which Mud then stripped and repainted in primer topped with the Hammerite Blue heat resistant paint he’d used on her axles, when he had refurbished them.

Big boys toy and the snow

We awoke this morning to a sight which brought joy to the hearts of every child in the village and resigned acceptance of a long and trying few days for every adult. Well nearly every adult.

Mud was the biggest kid of them all! Nigh on dancing around the house, as he contemplated a couple of hours of fun, playing with Annie in the 10-18 inches of snow that had fallen overnight.

Beware the gift horse ……….

…. it may bite!

When Mud announced that he thought it was high time I had my own car again, I was elated. To be fair, the age of the Jap’ truck had a lot to do with this decision but I didn’t care. My own car!

Annie in need of some TLC

No more struggling onto buses with masses of shopping bags. Gone would be the waiting in the rain, snow and icy winds for the bus which was 20 minutes late – again!

Another kind of shopping list

One of the hitherto unmentioned and unforeseen benefits of being married to a Landy enthusiast is the justification of my addiction to list making. I have endured years of rolled eyes, sighs and exasperated shrugs, as yet another list is written as prompt to my woeful memory.

To be fair though, Mud does make the occasional list but only once in a blue moon and it’s usually to draw attention to the large number of jobs that need to be done about the house, garden and, more recently, the Land Rovers, for which invariably, he states he neither has the time nor money to complete.