Off we went enjoying the vile sound of the 3 cylinder VW engine, shades on, wind in my hair (well what's left of it) Tom Tom babbling strange names to us (it doesn't really do Portuguese road names very well).
I thought Oh gear shift feels odd, but hey its holibobs and almost wine o Clock well will be in 2 hours.
On to the A28 we went accelerating like a snail in the T Cross up to a breath taking 20mph, 3 to 4th and,,,, Oh the gear knob, boot and trim all came off in my hand. leaving just the lever, that's novel I thought must a Portuguese modification. Was going to chuck it on the back seat but my wife (
I wish) said I wasn't allowed, so I carried on trying to make 30mph in this 3 cylinder hot rod.- Something missing here?
Shoved it back on as you do and pressed on, not wanting to slow this powerful machine down other wise we will never got to 30mph, further down the road traffic get heavy and we are down to stop start and yep off it comes again, oh and again by this point I was going to chuck it out the window, eventually I decide I taking it back i can't be doing with a knob in my hand all the time... "stop it! behave!
" , in the outside lane now the traffic starts moving and..... 1st gear wont go in at all, got it into 2nd and crept along trying to get onto inside lane to get off but nope finally did just past junction 1, on a slight incline, off traffic goes again and I select 1st, oh it went in just about to lift clutch and vehicle bleeps and reverse camera come on???? a quick look tells me it is in 1st gear gate and not by my knee, where reverse would be, now it wont come out of reverse track behind honking and flashing like mad, YES I NKOW its in reverse, both hands now pulling on it still not moving and yes off comes the knob again so I waved it out of the window at him, the gear knob that is..... "oh come on don't be rude! 
" so he got the jist of what was happening, I forced a stall and the lever popped into neutral, used 2nd to get off the lane.- It's gone all floppy
- WOW, he is close I can almost lick his truck.