Thought it was about time I updated this thread.
The car is no longer mine - I sold it a couple of months ago 
The new owner drove it 8+ hours to its new home in Inverness! All without any problems so i'm told 
I felt it was time to move on, which I have done with the purchase of an '09 Renault Sport Clio 197. I thought it was about as close as I could get to the fun and chuckable nature of the mini and so far i'm loving it and got to say i'm not missing the mini much since buying it 
So since i'm now miniless this is a bit of a sign off from me, as I won't be around much. I'll still pop on every now and then no doubt to see how the mini scene is going though 
