Don't panic! They are coming to our school this week. AARGH! Oh sorry, I wasn't going to panic. Too late. PANIC!

So here we are in the silly little car itself! Powered by a lawn mower engine, unable to carry its driver up any sort of gradient, and engineered like a bean tin. They were apparently originally designed to carry advertisements, but were also bought by maharajahs and the like for their children to pootle about the estates in. Jim Parkinson took it to the USA and Russia, and walked alongside it uphill. His brother David (on the right of the picture) was thrilled to see it again, on display at Brooklands Motor and Flying Museum.

We were very pleased to have a visitor this weekend - my 3rd cousin once removed, David Parkinson. We are related via John Bradley of Stickney and Mary Ann Bennet of Kent, our shared ancestors. Having corresponded by email for a time, it was great to meet face to face when David, who lives in San Francisco, came over to the UK for a work reunion with old pals from his days in Marconi. We spent Friday afternoon swapping genealogy info, pictures of family and stories, to our mutual satisfaction.
His secondary mission was to try and find the 1935 Rytecraft Scoota car in which his brother Jim went round the world in the 1960's. Jim died not long ago, and David was keen to locate the vehicle and pay homage to his brother's adventure. He had found the car was on loan to Brooklands Museum in Weybridge. So on Saturday, armed with photos and magazine articles about the world trip, we went to Brooklands. Sure enough, the car was there, and in return for copies of all David's documentation, we were allowed to sit in it (very uncomfortable!) and have our photos taken. David was thrilled to see the car in such a good home, and we all enjoyed seeing it, and spent a few hours around the rest of the museum while we were there.