Hi, I'm Paul. Mortimer’s partner in crime! Here is a little about myself, how I came to live in Germany and how Mortimer and I met.

 

Born in Birmingham, England, way back in 1972, I always had 2 passions in life: cars and guitars. After leaving school in the late 80’s I could usually be found with either a guitar or a wrench in my hand. My very first car was in fact a classic Mini - yes, yes, “how very British” I hear you say, with visions of Mr Bean springing to your mind no doubt! - aaanyway…following on from my Mini (RIP), many, many vehicles of various shapes and sizes came and went; from Transit vans to a cute little Hillman Imp in a delightful shade of purple. Whatever the ride - I simply loved to drive! Parallel to all this driving around the British towns and countryside I was slogging away with my band and getting nowhere fast. So I decided to study. As music was pretty much all that I knew, I decided that that would be the course of direction. Firstly in the beautiful southern town of Chichester and afterwards at Birmingham Conservatoire. Not long after my graduation from the Conservatoire I found myself on tour in Germany, performing in “Footloose The Musical”. Well, to cut a very long story short I ended up moving to Berlin. There then followed many years of performing in rather a lot of musicals and bands. Now, the trouble with Berlin is that it has a rather good public transportation system. In fact, so good that one really doesn’t need a car. Not so great for a ‘petrol-head’ such as I! So, whether with a BVG public transportation pass in my pocket or on my bicycle (a Raleigh of course), I gloomily rode around Berlin, always having the feeling that something was missing in my life. 

After much thought, it became clearer that those somethings turned out to be Great Britain and driving. So, why not combine the two! Some time later I did actually find myself needing a car and had been looking at all the regular car options when the crazy idea of a London Taxi came into my head. But not the new rounded shape, oh no. The classic old London Taxi shape that had barely changed from 1958 until almost the turn of the century. So I started my search and spent a lot of time researching how they had mechanically and optically changed over the years - fear not, I’m not going to bore you with mechanical details now - and in the end I knew the exact type and year that I was after. Now, you may well have noticed, that there aren’t an abundance of old London Taxis driving around in Germany, or for sale for that matter. Yet there was me, deciding on a specific year and model and condition, with low mileage and in Germany. No chance! Or was there…?  

Then, by chance, I saw an advert. London Taxi for sale. Low mileage. The exact year that I was looking for. Lovely condition. It even had a name, “Mortimer”. I contacted the owner - a lovely lady from Cologne, who had lovingly cared for Mortimer for many years and with whom I am friends until this very day - and we arranged an initial visit. Well, it was love at first sight! And the rest, as they say, is history! 

 

I am very much looking forward to hearing from you and hopefully introducing you to Mortimer one day soon! 

 

Feel free to give me a call 🙂