Mud Sweat & Tears - Bear Grylls [113]
We lowered Shara’s granny’s old sofa and chest of drawers in through the roof, and painted and varnished furiously. By the time of the wedding, all was done.
The marital bed was neatly made, Shara’s nightie was carefully laid out on the pillow, and all was set for when we would return from honeymoon, ready to spend our first night together there.
I couldn’t wait.
The day after our wedding, we flew off on honeymoon. I had recklessly waited until two days before our wedding to book the holiday, in the hope that I would get some great last-minute deal somewhere.
Always a dangerous tactic.
I pretended to Shara that it was a surprise.
But, predictably, those ‘great deals’ were a bit thin on the ground that week. The best I could find was a one-star package holiday, at a resort near Cancun in Mexico.
It was bliss being together, but there was no hiding the fact that the hotel sucked. We got put in a room right next to the sewer outlet – which gave us a cracking smell to enjoy every evening as we sat looking out at the … maintenance shed opposite.
As lunch wasn’t included in the one-star package, we started stockpiling the breakfasts. A couple of rolls down the jersey sleeve, and a yogurt and banana in Shara’s handbag. Then back to the hammock for books, kissing and another whiff of sewage.
When we returned to the UK it was a freezing cold January day. Shara was tired, but we were both excited to get on to our nice warm, centrally-heated barge.
It was to be our first night in our own home.
I had asked Annabel, Shara’s sister, to put the heating on before we arrived, and some food in the fridge. She had done so perfectly.
What she didn’t know, though, was that the boiler packed in soon after she left.
By the time Shara and I made it to the quayside on the Thames, it was dark. Our breath was coming out as clouds of vapour in the freezing air. I picked Shara up and carried her up the steps on to the boat.
We opened the door and looked at each other. Surprised.
It was literally like stepping into a deep freeze. Old iron boats are like that in winter. The cold water around them means that, without heating, they are Baltically cold. We fumbled our way, still all wrapped up, into the bowels of the boat and the boiler room.
Shara looked at me, then at the silent, cold boiler.
No doubt she questioned how smart both choices had really been.
So there we were.
No money, and freezing cold – but happy and together.
That night, all wrapped up in blankets, I made a simple promise to Shara: I would love her and look after her, every day of our life together – and along the way we would have one hell of an adventure.
Little did either of us realize, but this was really just the beginning.
1 Rob suffered from narcolepsy and sadly died in 2010 from a heart attack. Now safely settled in heaven, he was truly one of life’s heroes, and such a friend to us.
PART 5
THE BEGINNING
When the ball rolls your way grab it. We so rarely get a second chance. (Although miraculously this does sometimes happen, too.) And remember that life is what you make of it – and that is what makes the possibilities so exciting.
My granny, Patsie Fisher
CHAPTER 105
So Shara and I started our married life fairly hard up, but much in love.
The latter has never changed.
Shara was never the ambitious one for my work, and I am so grateful for that in many ways. I can think of few things as exhausting or disempowering as a pushy wife, desperate for her husband to better himself.
Instead, I have always applied my own pressure, and have been just quietly grateful for such a cosy, fun, loyal, family-centred best friend in Shara.
Within a year of being married, though, both Shara and I lost our fathers. It was the ultimate trial for us at such a young age, just starting out on our journey together.
Brian had fought the bravest of fights against multiple sclerosis for over fifteen years – but finally, and quietly, he passed over to the other