As Gabriel Garcia Marquez famously didn't write "it wasn't the best of times, it was the most covid of times".

Much like Florentino and Fermina it was in the height of a pandemic that we fell in love. Whilst we lacked the sounds of the Colombian jungle we did have the best summer the UK has had in years.

A first date straight out of a Richard Curtis film saw us in Hampstead Heath, complete with picnic blanket, a cuddly wee greyhound and enough Pimm's to cause a mischief. Love soon followed.

Soon after moving in together, it was clear that we had a big problem. There clearly wasn't enough canine energy in the place since. Despite Neeo's best efforts, he remained a cat trapped in a dog's body.

Cue the arrival of Bear. A beautiful bundle of fluff and love. Well, not quite. She loathed us. So much. Nothing but teeth and hate.

Alas, it proved a valuable lesson, with love we could do anything. And now she's 95% an angel. But 5% as bad as she can get away with.

A new year brought with it the chance for us to escape the lockdown bubble and experiment in getting lost in a new world.

This time Bobby was fortunate to be travelling with someone who could actually speak any language other than English. Undeterred, he still did his best to cause trouble.

It was a trip that encompassed an entire continent. We raided tombs in the Colombian Jungle and danced at the birthplace of Salsa. We hiked the mountains of Patagonia and played with the penguins at the end of the world in Tierra del Fuego. We unashamedly posed in the salar at Uyuni and wondered the streets of Havana looking for John Lennon. And of course, we always drank more wine and rum than a sailor on shore leave.

Having barely touched down after our trip, we immediately jumped into another adventure - a full house renovation.

As everyone that has watched Grand Design will know, this is not for the faint hearted. Clearly, we thought we'd be the exception. Spoiler, we were most certainly not.

Once again, with love (and a fair amount of patience from Bobby) the house was conquered and now, 18 months after the works started, it only occasionally rains indoors!

With the nights getting longer and the weather growing invariably awful, Bobby was running out of days.

But at last that perfect combination of dry, sunny and not being on-call all came together.

So on a quiet spot out on the Chiltern Hills, with no company but Bear and Neeo, Bobby asked the question just before the sun began to set. Valeria barely let him finish and initially forgot to answer. When it did actually come it was "Yes, yes, yes".