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AVE you ever tried to drive a car from Manchester to Cornwall’s north coast?

Of course you haven’t. You’re not an idiot.

I have. Many times. Because I am an idiot, and I love Cornwall’s north coast so much that at the very moment I arrive, I instantly forget how hard it is to get there.

It’s a journey that can take anything from five-and-a-half hours to five-and-a-half days. Although, of course, nobody’s ever done it in five-and-a-half hours. That’s just a SatNavbased theoretical possibility. It never actually happens.

Anyway this year’s trip was an average eight hours, not too bad, not too good. But it was unusual in that it took a full four hours just to get to Birmingham.

And at that point the 30mph speed limit on the M5 (they were resurfacing it, probably still are, and likely always will be) might have been enough to finish me off.

And it certainly would have been, were it not for a miracle innovation in automotive comfort that was entirely new to me - cooled seats.

Even though hot August days are nowhere near as hot as they were in the good old days, things can still get a little heated when you’re sat on the M6 car park for hours staring blankly and silently at the rear end of a National Express coach.