It was the occasion of our 5th wedding anniversary.  We had arrived at a hotel in the Cotswolds that traced its history back to the 13th Century and had enjoyed a gastronomic feast in the hotel restaurant.  Suitably replete and having polished off a very nice bottle of wine we set off up the somewhat winding and rickety stairs to our bedroom.  As we approached the door we could hear a phone ringing and by the time we had manoeuvred our way into the room (the lock being somewhat troublesome) the phone had stopped.

I wondered who would be calling us at 10.15pm in a hotel far away from home when we had not given anyone the address.  So, decided to call reception.  The receptionist answered and told me that some other guests had reported the lights of our car were on in the hotel car park.

Immediately the rosy glow from the wine evaporated as we rushed down to the car park at the rear of the premises.  This was accessed through a particularly pretty garden illuminated, as it was, by the candles of  the restaurant and the solar charged garden lamps.

When we reached our car it became apparent the lights were indeed on and when we tried turning over the engine it failed to sputter into any kind of life.

We had to make a decision.  We could either just go to bed and leave all thoughts of resurrecting the car engine until the morning - which would impede our plans to tour the area the next day.  Or, we could ring the AA and get an engineer to jumpstart the motor and ensure the car was ready to go at whatever time we decided to surface from our four poster bed in the morning.

I have to admit, being our anniversary evening I was all for delaying contacting an engineer and dealing with it in the morning.  My husband however has Carpe Diem as his motto and was intent on ‘seizing the day’ or what was left of it, as the stars shone above us in the hotel car park. 

So it was that he decided to ring the AA and suggested as a romantic gesture that I might like to go back to our room, retrieve a bottle of wine we had sneaked in to enjoy after hours and bring both the wine and two glasses back to the car park to await the arrival of the AA engineer.

Well, it was our anniversary!  So, I went back through the pretty illuminated garden, put the wine bottle, corkscrew and two glasses into a carrier bag and tried not to clunk too much as I made my way back to the car park.

It was by now about 10.40 and when I arrived back with my booty of alcohol my husband told me the AA engineer would be with us by 11.00.  The night was fine, no moon was to be seen unfortunately but stars shone brightly overhead as we quaffed some of the contraband alcohol in the car park.  We may have even had a little dance but only the stars could testify to that.

Around 11pm, true to their word the AA engineer arrived.  He was a jolly fellow with a Gloucestershire twang to his voice and he proceeded to locate the car battery and recharge it.  We passed the next 20 minutes exchanging tales of breakdowns he had known and trips to London he had had until it was time for him to leave us with a car running for 15 minutes to ensure the battery would hold enough charge for it to be viable to use the next morning.

After he left, the wine was still flowing and after a little cuddle we decided our car was indeed charged enough and made our way back through the enchanting garden to our room in the hotel.

The next morning after breakfast, all was well.  The car started first time and we set off on a trip to Cheltenham.  Unfortunately the weather was really bad and having become rather waterlogged we decided to return to our hotel for lunch.  After lunch with the rain still falling we tried to connect to the wi-fi service operated in the hotel to catch up on emails, etc.  Unfortunately there were some connection problems and I went down to reception to sort them out. 

Whilst talking to the receptionist I happened to glance over the reception desk and saw a TV monitor upon which various CCTV images were showing.  Imagine my shock when I realised that one of the cameras was covering the hotel car park! 

I could see in my mind’s eye the hotel receptionist from the night before laughing as she watched my husband and I drinking our wine and dancing round the car park. 

So, this is a cautionary tale - you never know who is watching you and if you do find out who has seen you, ensure you get to YouTube before they do!