It’s now Friday and it’s rained every day since last Sunday and out of frustration and boredom I’ve taken refuge in taking pictures of objects around the house.

This VW Beetle was a birthday (Last week, April 30) present from our friend Ken. He knew that our old Toyota Camry had given up the ghost a year or so ago and I suppose he found it amusing to provide this as a replacement (to be fair he did give me a bottle of 15 year old Tobermory single malt scotch too). It also came with a challenge. He told me that there is something wrong with the model and left it to me to find out what.

I know very little about cars, but nonetheless I spent a few days browsing the internet and looking at pictures/plans of VW Beetles hoping that inspiration would strike me. I did notice that the rear view mirror and side mirror(s) were missing, but when I mentioned that to Ken he dismissed it as trivial. No, he had discovered something much more serious. I kept looking, but finding nothing, eventually gave up. Ken’s response was:

I can almost feel your pain! And inflicting pain was never my intent! Turn the model over and fix your gaze between the front wheels. There’s a suggestion of an engine and a gear box. Now, what do we/you know about where the engine/gearbox is on a Beetle? At the back!

Wow! Is that what those squiggles were? I’d never have spotted that in a million years.

I took a few pictures of the model today and the one above was the one I preferred. I like the way that almost nothing is in focus and the car seems to just disappear into the background.