SWAGS

Chris and I met via Match.com in 2006, he was widowed with three teenagers and I was divorced with two. Before meeting we exchanged various emails one of which stipulated that Chris’s passion for steam consisting of him volunteering at Claymills Victorian Pumping station at Burton-on-Trent and him building a miniature traction engine were non-negotiable. I was 46, my dad had been an engineer who taught engineering at Clayton Dewandre in Lincoln so I was used to boiler suits and ‘that oily smell.’

Our relationship flourished and in the summer of 2007 we attended a traction engine driving weekend at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket. I donned with a very patient mentor. By the end of that weekend I was cleaning, driving and steering. I was hooked. We repeated the experience for the following two years as well.