How!

A blast from the past landed on my desk at the weekend, an i-Spy book. It was presented free in the Daily Mail, and is sponsored by Michelin.

I grew up surrounded by i-Spy books. Each book covered a subject such as i-Spy Cars, on the Pavement, Churches, on a Train Journey, and so on. They were particularly successful in the 1950s and 1960s.

There were roughly forty small volumes that sold in hundreds of thousands. As we children spotted objects such as coal hole covers, oak trees, semaphore signals, fire engines, whelks, and so on, they were recorded in the relevant book, and gained points. Once the book was complete, it could be sent to Big Chief i-Spy for a feather and order of merit.

I can't remember sending any off myself, although I know friends did, and some had quite a collection of feathers.

The particular volume I received was 'on a car journey' and I have just missed the ideal opportunity to test drive it, so to speak. Yesterday I picked up my nephew, Matthew, from Swindon and we drove up to Scouseland. Once we had caught up on news and exhausted our other conversation he settled into his i-Pod and I listened to a bit of the cricket. It was only as we slowed down due to weight of Sunday traffic that I suggested we might play a car game, but with a lack of yellow cars and pub signs, nothing came of it.

As we approached Southport there was a queue of vintage and custom kit cars leaving the annual WoodVale car show. I notice there is and i-Spy book on vintage cars, so we might have ticked a few of those off.

The i-Spy book, I now have, however, would have been ideal for the longer journey as we could have searched out roadworks signs, police cars, flags, planes and a lot more. It seems as if they have combined many of the older categories into the one volume but is seems to work, so we might give it a go on the return journey next week.

Toot toot!