Wednesday 18th August

The Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show inevitably means an early start – though by the time I roll out of bed at 7ish, her dad and a few other family members have been up at the show field for a couple of hours already. We have a quick micro-breakfast and drive the short distance up to the field – incidentally the venue we have pencilled in for our wedding reception next year. The huge show is already busy, and packed with stalls advertising everything from farming equipment to insurance, with the enormous food hall tent and farmer's markets dominating the northern outreaches of the field. We park up by the Main Ring, where horses are trotting around in preparation for the show-jumping competition later, which is in turn to be folllowed by a display by the Royal Signals motorcycle display team.

The first order of business, though, is to get a proper breakfast on board, so we wander up through the food hall and get a couple of sausage sandwiches, before walking a first circuit of the field. We bump into K's older brother, along with his wife and their two kids, somewhere around the bouncy castles. We spend a little while watching the eldest, three-year-old Olly, runing giddily through the ball-filled fun house and sliding down the massive inflatable slides, before K takes him on the bumper cars for the first time of many today. I stand holding the bags like I was somebody's mum (they're not my cup of tea, fairground rides), until it's time to wander on and catch up with the parents and various other siblings.

The weather is beautiful for the most part as something like 20,000 people pile through the gates – though by lunchtime the heavens have opened and we shelter, shivering under a marquee, only nipping outside to bet on and watch the always-entertaining ferret racing. At this point I am at the opposite side of the field from the car containing my raincoat, so we brave the weather for long enough to run back over to the Main Ring – by which time it has, inevitably, started to brighten up.

One more heavy downpour aside, the rest of the day passes very pleasantly indeed, and I treat myself to a couple of pints of authentic West Country cider later in the afternoon – before we head home, completely wiped out and ready for an early night. So much bigger than the Summer Fayre we went to back in June, the Show has been a success by all accounts; meaning we'll need our sleep tonight before heading back in the morning to help with the sizeable clean-up operation.