Hi guys

Sounds like your having a fantastic time - living on your owns hard no!!!!!!

Do you ever get that feeling that you would just like someone else to have to cook for the day or do they have a good delivery service for their takeaways out there?????

Hope you got my email Will thought you both aught to know - its not either of yours though!!!!!!! Tracey and Matt are very excited but as shes off exploring in Shrilanka at the mo (sorry didnt know how to spell it and couldnt be bothered to look it up)!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone really misses you at the pub and a few of us girls are now scared because we have to carry all the heavy boxes how did you lift them!!!!!!!!!  Everything is coming together now ready for the catering to move to stroud getting very exciting.

Just thought if your living on a budget and need to do some cleaning just remember vinegar is cheep and an antiseptic (hints and tips from the rose and crown!!!!!!!!!)

I dont know Jim that well but feel a bit guilty that i cant say much but hi hope your having a good time and thanks for cleaning the R&C kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continue to have a fantastic time and we'll see you when you get back hopefully in time to carry some HEAVY boxes

love you loads Ree xXxXxXx 

Hi boys, Glad to hear that things are still going well. I've been chatting to Vicky about  NZ washing machines(!) and she says that she and James had similar problems initially. You might have to put the powder in to a tube in the centre of the drum so that it disperses properly. Failing that, try a launderette to see if that's any better or up-grade your powder if you can afford to!! Have a great weekend and a safe trip back up to Auckland. Lots of love as always.xxx

Emma in crisis, Will ~ debate as to whether to tuck her up for a rest (and replenishment of £) and put some road tax credit in your account, or send her in for a gentle refurbishment, which I'm sure she'll respond well to! Could be boots or wheels! I'll try and get a quote tomorrow. Glad to have made you smile, GM. Feel slightly embarrassed as I could go through my own messages with a busy red pen! Hope your delayed Pancake Day went well, Boys (fancy forgetting your 4th most favourite day!) ~ and that training was not too painful. How's the gym? Muscles to impress? Will Gidman has left us to go and play cricket for Durham and he has left a gap in our staffroom ~ a real young gentleman, all too rare in this country at the moment: that's 4 missing from the Stroud area now! Certain that your budget watching is better than most ~ trust you implicitly. Speak soon. Mxx

Hi Ian & Co.! Seems you have it all sussed out and you are all pulling together!  Have you got rid of the pesky ants?  It was lovely to hear all your news. You know we are always thinking of you and we look on your website every day - just in case there are any photos!!!  Keep up the good work boys!  When you come back, bring some good rugby tips - England could sure do with you right now!!! Love as always N  & P xxx

  Oh MrsWillsMum, you've made my day!

Don't expect that the three amigos will find it as funny as I did, but it gave me a laugh on a wet grey morning at work - just what I needed!

My brother's English teacher once wrote in his school report 'I grieve for his punctuation!' - I quite understand how he felt and I echo the sentiment with regard to both punctuation and grammar!

Firstly, grammar ~ can't stand it any longer! NO APOSTROPHE FOR PLURALS (and to think you guys could be running the country/building rockets/brain surgeons/fruit pickers/premiership rugby players one day).

Secondly, costing me a FORTUNE on the phone telling you the recipes SEVERAL TIMES and STILL texting me!

Bacon&cheese pancakes: (use smoked ham)250g, SR flour 250g, milk 300ml, 2 eggs, pinch salt & mustard powder, 50g grated cheese. Flour, milk, eggs & 2 pinches > bowl & whisk/beat. Stir in cheese and cooked bacon/ham. Cook in hot pan as pancakes.

Lemon squash: 2 lemons,3lbs sugar, 4pints water, 2ozs citric acid. Cut peel > liquidizer + 1/4 pint water & zizz for 1 min. > Saucepan with rest H2O > boil. Take off the heat. Squeeze lemon juice & add with sugar & citric acid. Stir to dissolve then strain > bottles.

Thirdly: on speaking to Martyn, it seems that not only is it possible to buy rugby boots in NZ, but the ones favoured by a certain 2nd row (& aspiring no. 8) happen to be the ones worn by the All Blacks....who presumably don't have to leave their country to buy their sporting footwear? However, this soft Mummy is making contact and enquiries re boots, rubber studs and international deliveries...not that she's missing her offspring. No, not at all, but I'd really rather not send old boots held together with tape across the world even if it is going to cost her over £100!!!!! Notmissinyousomuch. Mxx

Hey Boys! Welcome to the real world of work, shopping and managing a budget! Don't let it get you down too much cos you'll soon learn to work it out, where to buy cheap beer etc etc!

Has been a lovely day here, almost got the roof down this evening!

Are you training again this week?

Catch you later in the week,

Dadman xx

 

   Hey Hey boys, hows it going out there. Sorry been trying to get hold of this website for ages but josh is just dumb and couldnt remember it.

   Anyway hope you boys arwe hgaving an awesome time out there, its just not the same without the giants. Alls good though just chilling in good old stroud. Hows the rugby ghave you strarted playing yet? Read aout your fruit picking sounds like a funny job to be doing.

   Well to let you know im probably gona come out for a month or two, so im sure ill travell a bit and come and say hello, hope your having an awesome time speak to you soon.

   Griff x x x x 

 

 

As one of the least travelled personsyou'll meet in many a long mile I'm enjoying following yours. New Zealand is somewhere I've always wanted to go - such a good growing country and I worked part-time in a local Nursery Garden which took in so many plants from there ...... often wondered exactly where and what they'd come from.

If apple picking is bad, you should try potatoes!  I did that during my holidays as a student and am grateful that I'm so short.  But think of it as bood rugby training, all that bending, stretching etc. I'll bet the pay is no better than that for spuds, though.  But an incentive to look for something more lucrative!

 I agree with the message about grape treading!  Although imagining a glass big enough for your feet lit my eyes up a bit!

Have fun with the Rugby.  Our weekend of it was less than inspiring!  Hey Ho!  there's always another time!

 Cornwall's bathed in sunshine at the moment, and tickled by a gentle breeze (thank goodness the weathermen got it wrong again) but I still wish I could be magic-ed across to NZ.    Looking forward to your next installment. Joy..

Hi Ian and boys , so glad you are having such a brilliant time! Sounds as though you have settled in very well and the menus very edible. Love to hear about the food! Who is the chef or do you take it in turns?  Agree with Will's Mum, looking at NZ apples with new eyes now and thinking of you all slaving away in the heat. Glad to hear that the socialising is not suffering though. Its been a real rugby weekend here. Chris was invited to a rugby day coutesy of Watts Trucks and went to watch Gloucester at Kingsholm after a curry lunch and then onto somewhere to watch England and Ireland on a big screen. I'll leave the rest to your imagination, needless to say I had a rare peaceful afternoon and evening. Had Aunty Mary to lunch today catching up on news of you and Ben. Weather here is boring - a little brighter today but rain forecast for the rest of the week - dull,dull,dull. Thinking of you in all of that sunshine!! Take care and enjoy.

Yo Yo everybody,

The boys checking in again on a 30 degree plus monday after a full day picking apples, sweltering and melting. We are all starting to miss home comforts now, especially those wonderful things called mothers, where are you when we need you?! But it is a great learning curve, enjoying every minute of it so much, and hoping to go visit some places this weekend, maybe a national park we have spotted not too far away. Apparently it has stunning views. Views we are still trying our best to show you all however our landlord is intolerant of communication and is proving hard to track down! But never the less we shall pursue and where there is a will there is a way, and we have a will haha. Training has been really good so far, jumping in at the deep end with an hour and a half session devoted solely to rucking (unlucky for jimmy) and tackling and running (unlucky will and ian). The toughness of teh contact is a bit of a step up and is doubled by the concrete like hardness of teh ground that has really taken adjusting too. All the blokes seem cool though. After a long sabbatical from alcohol, we finally succumbed to the pressure and went out into the local bars in Napier, had an interesting evening as the walk in proved longer than expected and drinks quite expensive, thoroughly enjoyable, is as much as i will say! The flat we are staying is becoming more of a home now as we are getting used to it, despite someone slamming the front door and the whole glass plane smashing to smitherines. Ian still lives in denial that his gentle pushed could result in such destruction...

Anyway time to sign off now, will write back again soon with some more tales no doubt. Much Love to everyone and we are missing you all hugely (especially mum's!). Thankyou for all your wonderful messages.  Best wishes to all and hope all is well.

The boys xxx

Hi Chefs/fruiterers/rugbyplayers/increasinglypoorpeople, don't know how I managed to post a completely blank message with an incomplete name .....but then, I've just spent 30 mins looking for my computer, which is where it always lives....and YES, I've just come back from the R&C where Gem'n I had supper and I did happen to sniff a glass of wine (also discovered a couple of stories that Clive hadn't heard, Will.....like the cheesecake one ~ sure he knows about the ceiling you painted pink for me, 'though). Lawrence is enjoying being the only male employee there, apparently. Clive happy to offer you £10.50 for a full day's work if the fuit picking really so bad and you feel £9.81 is not a fair reflection of your skills. I have to say that I enjoy NZ apples more now that I know that it could be you guys 'crating' them ~ or are yours the bruised ones, thrown in boredom & extreme frustration???? Viking slavery not too bad and we managed to avoid the rain. However, I think they've included a rather dodgy new exhibit in the Yjorvik Museum, which a rather forward and mature 10 yo also happened to spot.... I couldn't believe my eyes! Visitors sharing the dining room at the Youth Hostel have also improved their table manners, tidied their trays away and asked permission to go to the TV lounge. One husband said his wife hasn't eaten everything on her plate for years! Stan euphoric at my return (don't think Gem fed him) and Bianca increasingly hairless, bless. Hundreds of visitors tomorrow, not including the ones I've just found out about in the message below (and weren't mentioned over a 3 hour pub supper just now). Roulade, a roast, blackcurrant sorbet, yorkshire pudding, pancakes...... Yes, darlings, food is expensive AND takes a long time to earn the money for, choose then cook. I am SO PLEASED that you are really beginning to appreciate Mummies and am starting to believe that this kind of experience should be part of the National Curriculum. Missinuloadsasever. Mx