Honey, I blew our £27 000 life savings

» By Nothing2Say | the 02-09-2010 at 14:08 | 33 views (17 unique) | 1 comment | Report post!

Watching the sun go down over the ocean as they dined with legendary crooner Neil Diamond, Kevin and Julie Fitzpatrick agreed this was the most magical evening of their lives.

Both marvelled at how the rocks on the Malibu beach were covered in snow, despite the balmy temperature.

"Neil had it brought down from the mountains today," someone explained. "He wanted to make the setting for your Christmas dinner as festive as possible."

This ordinary couple from Preston in Lancashire had never experienced anything like it. An awning, covered with twinkling fairy lights, sheltered the decking from the gentle sea breeze where they, and 40 fellow guests, sat at a dozen round tables, beautifully laid with deep red cloths, crystal glasses and silver cutlery.

A couple of tables away sat Neil Diamond himself, smiling at Julie every time she caught his eye. "This is more amazing than anything I could ever have imagined,' Julie told Kevin, squeezing his hand.

Well, thank goodness for that. After all, that roast turkey dinner had cost them their life savings - £27 000 in total.

And it had put their marriage under some strain since, in a moment of madness that still has him breaking out in a cold sweat, 61-year-old Kevin had bid the lot in a charity auction - without consulting Julie.

The chain of events that led to that night started last November when Kevin, a semi-retired chauffeur, was listening to Radio 2 as he waited to take a client to the airport.

Terry Wogan had asked his listeners to bid for the prize of a lifetime to raise money for Children In Need. Certain that he couldn't possibly win, but wanting to be able to tell his wife he'd been a part of it, Kevin phoned up and opened the bidding with £5,000.

"We're not rich people, and that's a lot of money to us," says Kevin. "But, whatever happened, I hoped it would at least give us something to giggle about over supper."

Julie, 70, had gone to church that morning expecting to spend the afternoon catching up with her housework.