Hello everyone, hope yor all well! Well what can i say were begining to think the British weather has followed us this week mostly there has been rain, rain and then heavy rain, so our resident weeder has been parked up most of the week which i think the novelty of sat in the house on your own in the rain has started to wear off!! But regardless of the weather we at NZ Tractors have kept going, mostly outside too, not wanting to wear my good coat for work, something my dad will not believe as most of my childhood clothes were stained with oil he he, i managed to find a coat but it only has one arm so i've been fairly dry he he! So anyway wednesday night we were trying to get one of the tractors ready for 8am Thursday morning so we had to draft in extra staff, Anna was drafted in and armed with some blue overalls and a tin of polish, while me and Grant finished the last bits and pieces on it Anna did a sound job of making it sparkle, and we finally got back across home for 11pm that night bearing in mind that i had been at it since 8am thursday morning was a bit of a motivation struggle for me but we made it to friday night soon enough!!

Well Friday night, we had been building up to this all week the Canstaff Christmas do, after the NZ Tractors do it had a lot to live up to! Friday afternoon i had seen quite a few diff people come through the yard and had asked them what the Devon was like i was greeted with a selction of 'well', 'erm' and from the brave ones 'well its a bit of a dive' so they had really sold it to me before we even set of! Anyway never to be shy of a free feed and bar we got smartened up and went up to the pub, so after a few laps of the town centre we finally found it and not to be disappointed it looked lovely ha ha, so we parked up and went in, after finally finding the function room i finally got to meet the staff of 'Canstaff' well there was one or two who were just like us touring the country, but as for the NZ resident staff, well what can i say most of them would have fitted into a episode of Little Britain or if not that perhaps The League of Gentlmen it was hilarious, one of them was in a wheelchair not too sure how he did the weeding, perhaps they put him dual wheels on so he didnt sink. So anyway we sat with Anna's team who where good company and made good use of the free bar, although didn't go mad with the food after seeing the kitchen and its staff!! Well after quite a few pints and not alot of tea it was no good i needed food and it was off to Subway, this is owned by one of my workmates wifes, and i got everything in the shop on a sandwhich and in due course this made its way onto Anna discusting list much to my amusement! Saturday morning was a bit of a none event to be fair there was really heavy rain all morning so it kind of limited us a little so we popped up in to Ashburton got a few bits and pieces and went to the local John Deere dealers toy sale! So by mid afternoon the affects of boredom had set in and off we went to Warehouse and got ourselves a monopoly board this kept us going for the rest of the day! So today (Sunday) we thought we had got to get out of the house and beat the rain, so we set of on tour in the car and headed to Darfield, well its not quite the one i have passed through for the last 5 years!! It was a small town which was really quiet but really is a large ski resort! From here we headed back via the Rakaia Gorge this was quite a sight and the photos definately don't do it justice. At its narrowest it was probably about 300 meters wide and opened right out as it headed down the valley, we stopped at a view point and scrammbled down to the river bank, skimmed a few stones and saw a lesser spotted anna dear, see the photos!!, from here we headed to Methvern, another ski town really but worth seeing, here we saw the Blue Pub and the Brown Pub but unfortunately only from the outside he he!! So we headed back down to Spring Farm and got monopoly board out again, dam weather!! So as we write this we have been bombareded with xmas films and getting ready for a two day week, we both finish at 12 on xmas eve then im off right through until the 5th, Annas not too sure yet, so hope fully we'll be able to get some fun stuff done! Where having christmas dinner accross at Grant and Anthea's so that should be good, and if the weather holds out think we'll be having it on the patio!!! So we'll try to drop a line before the 25th but if not Merry Christmas to everyone and thankyou for the cards we have been receiving!! Just waiting for the presents now!!! hehe