Everything started when I mentioned to my editor that I hadn't crossed the Itchen Bridge in my car before.
Despite living in the area for the better part of my driving life, it had never been a necessity in those eight years.
Alas, when I arrived in the newsroom on Friday, I found my editor had a job for me to do across the river in Woolston.
A fifteen-minute drive from the office in Ocean Village, or just five minutes if I cross the Itchen Bridge.
My offhand comment about not using the bridge caught my editor's attention, and I was enlisted to create this first-person piece.
READ MORE: Itchen Bridge toll charge to increase for non-Southampton residents
Steeling my resolve, I endeavoured to face the unknown, preparing mentally to drive the whole 800 metres of the bridge across the River Itchen.
The main culprit of my unwitting aversion to the Itchen Bridge started when, as a freshly licensed driver, I changed the settings on my phone (which I also use as a satnav) to avoid any toll roads.
I honestly thought it would be less hassle, the thought of scrambling for change whilst cars queue behind me still fills me with dread even today.
Throwing my wallet onto the passenger seat and donning my sunglasses, my long overdue pilgrimage began.
The sun bore down as I made my way onto the bridge. I had been expecting a toll gate on the Southampton side, but there were no obstructions as I crossed into Woolston.
This reporter had also expected the road to be narrower, even with the bicycle lanes on either side.
I would have written something here about the bridge giving me a "commanding view of the city" as I drove over, if not for the parapets that block any such view from my little three-door car.
Arriving at the toll gate, I felt I was ready; until, to my abject horror, I noticed my wallet had fled the passenger's seat.
An embarrassingly long scramble later, I found it wedged near the handbrake.
I tapped my card against the contactless sensor that replaced toll collectors and felt relief as the bar marking the end of my journey rose.
Less than an hour later, upon completing my assigned reporting job, I returned across the Itchen Bridge, blasting Eye of the Tiger over my car's speakers.
Arriving back in the newsroom, the first question I received was not how I got on with the story, but how I got on with the bridge.
Rest assured, faithful reader, the £2.40 round-trip toll will be expensed to the Southern Daily Echo's accounts.
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