I had a very draining experience down on Brighton’s seafront at a Mini gathering.

Why I allowed my family to be battered all day by wind and rain I’m not sure, but it was sold to me as a great day out. And I suppose it was, helped tremendously by bacon butties, copious amounts of coffee and biscuits, burgers and chips, all topped off with a stick of rock. Felt disgusting by the end of this feast and then had to contend with very active kids on the way home.There’s always a price. However, my daughter did me proud as I used her as a prop once more to bolster my confidence. It’s normally with the in-laws, but it just shows how versatile they can be. I had to hand out leaflets, one for a mini product and the other for my own project of which I am so obsessed I fear that soon all my family and friends will leave me. My daughter is cute (what six year old isn’t?) and so greatly helped the cause…

There were many sights to behold once the rain had stopped – and not just the cars! I do love Minis and think back with great affection to a hand-painted yellow one, jointly owned with distant boyfriend. He got custody when we inevitably went our separate ways.

Then there was the lovely metallic blue one owned with husband, pre-marriage, pre-children, when all we had to worry about was our lovely black cat Polly, sadly deceased, who refused to travel in her basket and would sit draped around my shoulders whenever we travelled. She was spoilt and vicious.

I learnt a lot from her and vowed never to spoil my kids – however they’re vicious too, so something’s gone wrong. I still want a Mini and husband constantly promises, but it’s all wearing rather thin these days along with my looks. I know the Mini has benefitted from many facelifts, redesigns, upgrades, improved technology and indeed a complete transplant a few years ago, but the essential looks and character remain: It just seems to get better with ag

When I’m 50 (not too many years to go sadly) I’ll need so much plastic surgery to look good that I’d be unrecognisable, whereas the Mini still looks like a Mini. I’ve always consoled myself that with age would come more money with which I could make the most of myself with fabulous clothes and weekly facials. I hadn’t factored in the sheer cost of raising three kid

While I do manage to give my legs a shave now and then, I still shop at Gap and M&S and find designer stores intimidating. Unlike me, the Mini is celebrating its five decades looking better than ever. For me, elegance with age is a distant dream, rather like my hopes of a Mini. I shall have to content myself with being extremely wise instead…

BMW X1 sDrive 20d SE (6 speed) £24,205

I’m still undecided about the looks of this car. Are they just bold, or is it a disaster? A bit of this and a bit of that all stuck together. If so, then I know how it feels – and that’s on a good day…

However, despite my quandary about its appearance, it still made me feel like a BMW should make you feel. Special. Luxuriating in the quality, style (yes it does have style) and sheer poshness (just shows how un-posh I am) while I was driving it, it certainly makes you feel good about yourself.

And on top of all this, it does have a practical side. It’s comfortable, has a great driving position and a boot that can swallow up huge amounts of goodies! So with that lovely mix of practicality and image, I felt I was using it to the best of its abilities.

As I sped up the M1 for lunch in Woburn with my lover, a huge shopping load discreetly hidden in the boot, with smaller, more expensive purchases carefully hidden in the space beneath the flat loading floor the car and I looked a million dollars. “In your dreams”, I hear you say. So true. However, I didn’t look too bad for a woman of my age and a lunch date was with my husband. Car and driver fitted in well at the country pub, even if it did take my husband a few seconds to realise it was me waving madly at him as I pulled up outside the restauran

But looking through the restaurant’s windows I did have to admit again that it was an odd looking vehicle Although its looks had grown on me with every mile I drove that might have been the lovely driving experience influencing my thoughts. It has a very long bonnet and the roof seems somewhat squashed. I feel as if the whole thing needs to be pumped up a bit and shortened – but then we’d have an X3, or an X5. It’s a problem.

So where does it fit in with BMW’s line up and why is it needed? BMW say it’s their first compact SUV, being more affordable than other BMW models. It’s not an off-roader, although it claims to be able to cope with rougher terrain that your average car. There again, there is nothing average about hits car, with its looks, great fuel economy (over 50 mpg) and low CO2 emission (139 g/km) and the first X model with the fabulous stop/start function which gives a 3% improvement in fuel economy and is such fun to use, frightening friends and family alike.

It will turn heads, but whether due to admiring glances or sheer curiosity it’s hard to know. I was sad to see it go at the end of the week. And one of the advantages to having rather heavy steering (something I only fully discovered when forced to drive back and forward in front of the camera, endlessly doing u-bends and reversing) was that it definitely tightened up my biceps. Not something I would necessarily look for in a car, but hey, got to fight those bat wings somehow!