Mel’s entered a bride competition, please vote for her! She’s at the top right-hand corner.

Note: The “Vote here for” is an e-mail link, it can be sent in with just the subject or you can add some comments in the message body. Voting is open until the end of January.

When I was seven my family spent the summer travelling around Australia. We were trekking with a group through a forest-y area and came to rest by a small waterfall. While sitting in and around a pool at the top Dad started badgering Mel to get in the water. She refused, he insisted. This somehow ended up with him trying to drag her in, which in turn resulted in both of them being flung head-first over the fall.

Now I immediately started tearing up and a nice stranger tried to comfort me. “Don’t cry, look they’re fine. Everyone’s okay.” That did shut me up, but only for his benefit. I didn’t have the heart to admit I was only crying because one of them had rolled on and squashed my foot on the way over.

So vote for Mel! If not because she’s sweet and charming, then because she has the best take on how she likes her toast (”Oh I don’t want to kill it, just scare it a little”), could probably bench-press me, wrote me letters from the tooth-fairy when we were little, and has survived a trip over a waterfall (not to mention her little sister).