Falling instantly in love is more often than not the domain of the young. Unrequited love generally that of a more senior citizen, but when you have a heady mixture of the two plus add a fantasy figure you just get the stupid infatuation of middle age. So it was at a Land Rover Show last year.

To protect the guilty I will just call this guy Brownie. He was working with us as a trainee Grip under the watchful eye of our chief electrician. Unknown to us, for the last 15 years, he has held a torch for that queen of computer games Lara Croft. So, when she walked past our tent on a fine summer's morning I saw a man dissolve into  a gibbering, perspiring wreck as he ran and hid behind the cash desk.

You realise that a mid-life crisis is easily triggered. Speech became impossible - his knees knocked and he dribbled. All of this as he faced his vision of youth - the heroine and first lady of the Tomb Raider game. Now Land Rover Shows are pretty informal laid back affairs - so we said go out and ask for her autograph or have your picture taken with her. The bellowing scream of 'I can’t - I’m afraid' could be heard by everyone as he sobbed into his Peppa Pig blanket. The whole weekend we tried to get him to go and see her as she made regular appearances on the Tomb Raider Club stand and in the arena but to no avail.

As a tribute to him and his inability to even approach her we have posted this picture. As a reminder to all middle aged men we say either - 'Man Up and pull on your Big Girl Pants or ship out and Get Over It' -  she is not real!

This story has a happy ending as after several weeks of post traumatic stress counselling and convalescence he will be back at the 2012 shows on our stand.