"Don't touch the banana!"

"My friend Caroline has a huge garden in which she keeps a large number of beautiful laying chickens. One day I took her in my car to a farm just outside Preston to get some more ‘ladies’ to add to her brood.

"After collecting her new hens, we set off on the journey home. This meant taking some winding country roads before reaching the motorway. It was on one of these that my clutch started to feel a bit spongy. A bit further on and it started to squeal, then it smelt funny and eventually gave up the ghost altogether.

"So out came the mobile and a short wait for the AA to arrive while my toddler Nathaniel munched on a banana and played a game of spotting cars, vans, buses and nee-nahs.

"When Colin the AA Patrol arrived, he took a look at my car and said that I needed a new clutch. He told me that I could, in theory, still drive it and he would follow just in case, or he could tow us back home.

"I have to say that I chickened out of driving and plumped for the towing option. I’d never been towed before, but Colin was great and told me exactly what to do, including keeping the engine on to make steering easier. It was very strange driving without using your feet and I kept wanting to change gear. To stop me doing so, Caroline told me to put the banana on the gear stick and keep saying to myself ‘Don’t touch the banana’.

"We got home with me only grabbing a handful of slimy banana skin once, when a police car with flashing lights and siren wanted to overtake us."

Daisie Davies, AA Member