Admittedly, Ken and Barbie have been going steady for 55 years, whereas Lisa and I have only lasted for twelve, but given that we have to cope with two kids and we don't have a camper van, I think ours is the greater achievement.
It was on 29th May 2004 that I caught Lisa off guard and in a moment of madness she agreed to call herself my girlfriend. It took another six years to take the step up to wife. The photo above was taken in March 2005, and didn't feature in the original blog post due to Lisa being less than keen on having her photo appearing on the internet. She still feels the same today, but now we're married, she no longer gets a say. And besides, I only allow her half an hour of internet use a day. On condition that she's ironed my shirts.
Anyhoo, I've clearly lost a lot of hair in the past twelve years, due mainly to these two...
I'm not saying I'd push them onto the train tracks, but they can be a little wearing at times.
Friday was the last day of our holiday, and the weather forecast was for cloud in the morning and rain all afternoon, so having woken up late to the anticipated grey skies, we decided to cancel our plans to visit the Tamar Otter and Wildlife Centre, and head into Launceston with our coats on. At which point the sun came out...
Unlike the sun, Toby refused to come out for that photo, preferring instead to re-enact The Railway Children by threatening to run onto the train tracks whilst waving his underwear on a stick.
It turned out to be a warm, sunny afternoon, which only added to the enjoyment of our wet-weather activity at the Launceston Steam Railway...
I'm not much of a trainspotter (I prefer stamp collecting), but it was a charming experience with sweet little steam trains...
... and enthusiasts who clearly love what they do...
The train runs back and forth between Launceston and New Mills through pretty countryside, a journey of around two and a half miles...
In reality, it doesn't go quite as fast as that. Which is just as well, as it actually made me feel slightly travel sick. I'm more of a Pendolino man, if the truth be told. I couldn't even plug in my iPhone.
But despite that, it was all quite enjoyable. The tickets allow you to ride all day, so having done the return journey once, we headed into Launceston town centre for a spot of lunch...
Toby was busy reading a dinosaur book he bought in a charity shop, so he missed out on the healthy, balanced meal that we provided for Amelie. It had fruit and everything.
With lunch over, I insisted that we get our money's worth by riding the rails again, this time rejecting the Toastrack carriage in favour of the Torrington & Marland...
According to the railway's website, this one "runs on bogies", so it was right up Toby's alley.
Friday evening was our last at Trewin Court, the holiday cottage we'd called home for the previous week. It was tinged with sadness, partly because our wonderful week of fun had come to an end, and we'd loved everything about the place, but mainly because we only found out on the last night that it had a freezer. The kitchen looks like this...
... so it's not until you open each wooden door that you know where everything is. The fridge and the washing machine essentially look the same. Which explains how Toby's pants ended up in the salad drawer. On arrival the previous Saturday, we'd found that one of the doors didn't open, so we assumed it was purely decorative and wasn't intended to be used. But on the Friday evening, twelve hours before departure, Amelie gave it an extra hard tug, and instead of breaking the handle as anticipated, the door swung open to reveal a full size freezer. I was gutted. I could have been eating ice cream all week.
But despite that tragedy, it was the perfect seven days. We bid a very fond farewell to Well Farm...
... and set off for home, stopping off briefly in Wiltshire to pay Big Sis a quick visit. We caught her between her nail appointment and her hair appointment, so her hands looked nice but her face was best avoided. It was nice to see her though.
So that's it. This blog's week-long resurrection is, in all probability, over for the time being, but it's been a fab week with a fab woman and our fab children. The next few months are likely to feature a few unpleasant challenges of the facial variety, but as I said to the dermatologist the week before last, "Cancer, schmancer". Well, ok, I didn't. But I wanted to. We've faced plenty of disasters over the past 12 years (not all of them child-related), and we'll get through this little setback too.
I love you, Mrs Gardner. xxx
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