That bloody Gnome

So last time I was playing Half Life Ep 2 on my old 360 (which suffered the dreaded Red Ring of Annoyance) I was attempting to get the rocketman (gnome in the spaceship) achievement. Now what went wrong that time was when I went to get the banged up car from across the broken down death-trap bridge. I had left Gnomey (such an original nickname) in the safe and capable hands of Alyx and the Vort. Or so I thought....

You see when you get the car and come back around to their side and then open the door to let them out you can't get the gnome as well (not if you thought just leaving it there was safe enough). No because the door you open for the guys is timed. It closes in a matter of seconds, far quicker than you will ever take getting through the door to pick up the most valuable virtual garden ornament in game-dom. I later found out the smart thing to do would be the leave the gnome on a box. Then when the door opesn, use th gravity gun to pull the box (with Gnomey ato) towards you. Alas it was too late for hindsight to kick in.
This time while replaying the Orange Box I thought "To hell with this...I'm going to take the gnome bastard with me to get the car."
And I did and it worked out fine...but then comes the next hurdle Valve decided to throw at us just to see if we could created veins and then pop veins all in the space of a few hours. There is no sure way of keeping the gnome in the car (at least none I've found) and I've tried shoving him EVERYWHERE, even under Alyx's ass. But apparently her rear-end is transparent. So or the entire duration of getting from the start point to the train station where you fight the Helicopter with it's own bombs, you have to become a saint of patience and calmness. Unless you're going in a straight line...you're fecked basically.

So after getting in and out and in and out of the car for ages trying not to die from being riddled with bullets and what-not, getting the gnome in the car for the 100th time and hearing Alyx saying for the 200th time, "Let's go Gordon" I finally got to the point where you can take a break from the gnome sitting.
Yes it was time to play crouch master and disable the big white beam laser canon combine firing things. So I leave Gnomey in the garage and wouldn't you know it I leave him on the ONE PLACE THAT HE WILL VANISH DUE TO HOW THE GAME WORKS.
I left him on the bench and when I came back, the car was where the bench was and Gnomey was gone :( I ransacked that place and no sign, none. After all that. I tried shooting all the resistance people, trying desperately to take my anger out on them and claim vengance but alas the bastards are immune to my own blasts...even grenades up the ass.
So begrudingly I realised I'd no save prior to placing Gnomey down and I got into the car and mowed down as many zombies as I could, then turned around and tried to resistance but once again I forgot about the Freeman Omnipotence.
So now I'm at the end of Ep2, taking on all those Striders (which I remember well being a pain in the balls) because those sticky bombs ain't so sticky and the location of the resupplies is really badly spaced out. Sigh.....I wonder do the Combine have any positions going.