I have no idea whether the owner of this glorious beast will regard it as a ‘girl’ or not but she’s a she to me alright. Isn’t she lovely? She’s somewhere around 100 years old, give or take a bit – I am NO expert and I don’t know how to go about aging a traction engine.

DM loves the muscular workhorse engines that once laid roads and ploughed fields – don’t get me wrong, I love them too but I love this showgirl for all her glitz and glamour and sheer sexiness.

As I lay on my stomach on the floor getting this ‘jaunty angle’ shot of her with her load of coal in front of her, a number of concerned bystanders gathered wondering if I was OK – DM had to whisper to me to get up before I was stretcher-ed off!

This is the anniversary of the day that David actually drove a traction engine – I will NEVER forgive him for that – I am so jealous I am green.

From the showgirls of Boconnoc to the showmen of the Pet Shop Boys, we’ve had a real outdoor Cornish treat today – steam engine rally in the afternoon – an unexpected treat, given that we were supposed to be in London, only arriving home in time to go to Eden to see the Pet Shop Boys this evening.

I’ve managed to get sunburned, which seems almost like a freak event given how much of ‘England, My England’ is under several feet of water again this weekend. Not here. We’ve had a lovely, sunny day. We’ve been out to an open air gig without coats and had a ball.

I must say, having always had a loathing of the Pet Shop Boys, I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed the gig – dunno if I’ve mellowed or if they were better than I gave them credit for at the time but I did enjoy myself quite a lot.

Mind you, the location of the gig puts you in such a great and open mood that it’d be difficult to imagine that you could go there and not have a great time. Eden at night acquires a special charm that during the day is not as evident – I love evening visits in the winter too. (Not that it’s not a treat during the daytime, I suppose it’s a ‘rarity’ thing – it’s not open so much in the evening so it feels like a super secret.)

We wandered around in the gardens and the biomes for a couple of hours, enjoying the evening scent of lilies and sweet peas. Again they inspired me – they’ve had this amazing galvanised structure put in that when we first saw it in the spring looked amazing but now looks completely heavenly draped in rainbow sweet peas. Oh – perfect, just perfect.

Then the Pet Shop Boys came on stage and although ti could have been a tedious affair with a relatively static singer and a completely static synth/keyboards/computer player, the showmanship of the gig really made it. I DID (despite myself) love the dancers and the glitzy backing vocalists, who, together with the dramatic staging, did give life to the whole show.

As for the ‘boys’ themselves – apparently Neil Tennant is around 50 – what a great set – ‘every one a winner’ as they say. All-in-all my day of showgirls and showmen was a treat of rare proportions.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

David was very disappointed to discover a seven-year-old driving 'his' traction engine this year!