HM Queen Elizabeth II, 60 years of successful devotion to duty, and she didn't even apply or ask for the job. Contrast that with our "masters of the universe" businessmen/financiers/politicians.

Les 24 Heures du Mans

The recent Le Mans 24 hours was the 79th running of the race and my 27th attendance, that's every year since 1984 except 1993 (don't ask). Every year I go with a band of friends and we camp. Usually it's three nights under canvas (more like polyester these days) and each year the challenge of campsite sanitation gets harder to face. Everything else remains about as wonderful as it was on that first visit. Yes the catch fencing restricts the view but this year, after the McNish crash where the car very nearly crossed the barrier, the necessity for it was made clear.

It's my aim to complete thirty attendances (2014 and age 65) then see how I feel about continuing. There was some dark talk this year about the need for hotel rooms rather than campsite emplacements but would that miss out on the unique atmosphere?

Tomorrow is the UK general election. Please make sure that you vote if you are eligible. Don't let's default into anything, let's make a positive decision.

If everybody who could vote did vote, that would probably be enough to get the change that we all feel we need.

See you on Friday 7 May, in a changed world?

25 things about me.

1. I find that parties are worthless unless there is dancing, Latin beat required.

2. Romance languages, I love them, especially Spanish at the moment.

3. I'm a born for the first time biker, I got my motorcycle licence at age 50.

4. In my dreams George Benson nods appreciatively at my guitar solos.

5. Once I tried to write down what would be a perfect week for me. It was really hard to do.

6. I am so super-proud of my three girls and one boy, but don't let on.

7. Until I was about 21 I was a skinny rake; that's not the case now, sadly.

8. My mind is full of useless detail, but then facts are not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom.

9. If I could live anywhere in the UK it would be in Bristol, in one of those houses that looks onto the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

10. I like ritual, so I make coffee in a complicated way with an espresso machine,

11. It's my intention never to give up developing and printing my own black and white photographs.

12. If there's a god, she's in the details, and in the people.

13. Mies was right, "less is more", but not when it comes to cameras, guitars and books.


14. I strongly prefer natural materials: leather, cotton and wool. I did once have a silk shirt but it was so hard to maintain.

15. I attended (occasionally) a good grammar school but completely wasted the opportunity.

16. I don't have a degree but wish I did.

17. I would love to do a camper van trip around France and Spain.

18. I love Gibraltar and defy anybody to go there and not make friends.

19. On my first ever day at school (September 1954) the teacher told me not to go out at playtime in case I got pushed and fell over. I ignored her and got pushed and fell over.

20. In some situations I am completely without fear, in others I'm an utter jelly. I cannot predict when or explain why either case should be.

21. I've only been sacked from a job once. It was when I was 14 and was delivery boy for an off-licence. I went to London on the back of a friend's scooter and we broke down. I was re-instated the next day.

22. I've only been out of work once, for four weeks in January of 1967.

23. I was 22 before I ever stepped out of England, and that was to Wales. Made up for it since.

24. For me Zagato was the greatest carozzeria. http://www.zagato.it

25. When asked to make a list of 25 things about myself, I can only think of twenty four.

This originally appeared on facebook, in early 2009. I read it again today and was not embarrassed, though you, my reader(s?) might be.

Living with an Italian supermodel

I don't live with a supermodel and, the way things are going, it looks like I never will. Never mind, my life partner, the beautiful redhead, surpasses any supermodel anyway. However there is one aspect of my life that is somewhat like living with an Italian supermodel.

Living with a supermodel would surely be a challenge: all those tantrums and unreasonable demands, all those clothes and shoes. Still when you're out and about with her none of that would matter.

Similarly, when you're out and about, riding your Ducati, exhaust singing that V-twin song, more basso profundo than supermodel soprano, everything is wonderful and the experience wipes out any woes the bike may have given you. Even if you are just gazing at it wondering how the Bolognese manufacturer can make an industrial product look so right, all practical considerations fall away.

A Ducati is not a domestic appliance. If you want push-button motorcycling get a Honda. Any piece of thoroughbred machinery needs some care to keep it up to scratch. My own 1994 600 Supersport had 2013 miles on the clock when I bought it in November 1999. Low mileage, no problem I thought but, since then, I have replaced fork seals, wiring to the headlight, battery (a regular maintenance item really), voltage regulator and chain (twice, once as preventive maintenance and once when it broke 30 miles from home). I crashed it once, at 20 mph, and that added to the upkeep costs a bit, new fork yokes needed. Also I had it Dynojetted with a Termignoni exhaust, and had HyperPro suspension fitted. Now the mileage now is close to 20000 and nothing much has gone wrong in the past two years and I've had plenty of fun with it. Was there a point at which "La Superba" felt that I had spent enough and was due a little reward for my trouble?

I was so excited when I stumbled across my 600SS - by chance, at a Kawasaki dealer, 120 miles from home - that I didn't think about what might be lurking underneath. I would have bought it whatever.

Overall the bike has been perfect for my requirements. I only took my bike test at age 50 and immediately wanted a Ducati. The 600SS is nothing like as fast as a 600 4-cylinder but it's torquey, handles beautifully and is cheap to insure. I will probably replace it some time with a 749 - although that would truly be a "Prima Donna Assoluta".

The best digital camera

The best digital camera is your scanner, because with a scanner you can use a film camera (or plate camera, if you are a deep traditionalist). The most interesting film cameras are made out of metal, leather and glass, and even a 1930s camera can compete with the latest hi-tech digicam for image quality, and beat it hollow for satisfaction.

Will film disappear? It looks unlikely; take a look at flickr.com to see how film (and darkroom printing) are surviving and thriving.

The best photographs created since photography's invention were made with low-technology cameras and what we might call inadequate materials. Most of them only had one colour.

A photograph doesn't care what was used to make it.

There is usually a logical explanation. If the weather is warm, you don't wear your dressing gown in the morning when you first get up, and if - a couple of weeks ago - you left your vintage Heuer in your dressing gown pocket it will seem as if your vintage Heuer is lost.

Meanwhile, unknowingly, you have been walking past your lost vintage Heuer two or three times a day, as you pass your dressing gown hanging peacefully on its hook.

Lots of work searching for nothing, chance found the watch.