Acquired, probably when I was about 12. Before that it was too bitter, and I only drank tea.



Not really, but there is a story about me learning to drink tea and coffee black. It involves me, in my second year at university, discovering on one too many occasions while writing an essay in the wee small hours of the morning when no shops are open, that I had left the milk out of the fridge all day and it had gone bad.



Oi, that's three related questions! I think we're way beyond our stated limit of "a couple" here.

In this country, automatics are the exception rather than the rule, and if you take your test in one you get a little code on your licence which says you aren't allowed to drive a manual. So the only reason anyone sensible would do that is if they were missing a crucial limb or something. Or so rich that they'd be able to afford an automatic even as a young driver and confident of never having to rent a car, and too lazy to do it properly.

I had to drive an automatic in New Zealand (even though I'd specifically requested a manual) – it's not exactly something you have to learn to drive. Rather like dodgems . Although I was very annoyed at them for not pointing out (despite my asking if there was anything I needed to know about automatics) that you can't start the engine without your foot on the brake pedal. That led to a very embarrassing few minutes at the front of a queue at some roadwork traffic lights.

Going up steep hills in that car was very annoying – it kept over-revving when I didn't want it to and using up all my petrol.



No, but I cycle to get to places, which is good enough. I'm considering a few visits to the gym in the run-up to exam time (December), so that I can read my revision notes while sitting on an exercise bike, and get some exercise without freezing to death.