We've just got back from a much needed break, a week away in a lovely Dorset country house. While we were there I managed to tick a couple of things on my 'Need to do before I die' list.

It's not that I think I'm about to pop my clogs or anything - according to the mind-blowing Psalm 139 that's all in God's hands and I trust him for it totally. I wanted to see Iona and Lindisfarne - the two Holy Islands and they were ticked on previous holidays. But the Dorset dreams were to walk down Gold Hill in Shaftesbury (the one in the Hovis advert, though I wouldn't want to risk it on a baker's bike!) and also to track down the original River Cottage.

In the past Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was very coy about where the location was and I thought it was a trade secret. So - armed with bits of info gleaned from the videos - I'd marked up maps and we did a bit of sleuthing following the River Britt on Google Earth to guess where it was. We settled on Slape Manor in Netherbury, only to find later that there are actually zillions of references to it now on the internet. . As the boy in the Hovis ad might say… "Eeh by gum! When me dad were a lad there were no such thing as t'internet tha knows!!"

Anyway I had Garry trailing round skinny country lanes with no passing places, looking for the cottage and he finally got fed up and went on strike. I was so utterly gutted as we had got so near but so far and I resorted to every woman's best defence - blubbing - so he turned the car around and tried again. He hadn't realised what an obsession it had become till I threw a wobbler. Serves me right for not explaining properly.

Sadly after circling the estate we realised you can't see it from the road and I'm not brave enough to trespass - but apparently they have annual open days (we'd missed it by 2 weeks) so we're planning a trip back next year when we may be able to get a closer peek. So hopefully (Lord) the Number 53 bus is not scheduled to flatten me in the next 12 months and I will actually get to see it.

I think it's always important to respect one another's dreams. Sadly while we were away we had various emails from both sides of a younger couple we know who have split up and both were putting their side of the argument forward to me (though it's really none of my business ) but I simply ache for them both.

It is just so tragic that they were together for over 8 years and gave each other the prime time of their lives but somehow didn't understand the things that were important for each other. It now seems terminal, with one person feeling that it's too late to fulfill a big dream, which is desperately sad.

I'd always recommend Marriage preparation to any couple as a time to openly express your Core values and expectations and to share the secrets of your hearts. No-one is a mind reader and hopefully you've picked a partner who understands the concept of Love & Cherish and who won't laugh, regardless of whether they share your thoughts and ideals or not.

Before the wedding is a good time to find out - and if there is a chance of them crushing you and riding roughshod over your heart's desires then please don't get married.

W.B Yeats puts it perfectly...
"Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."