the smallest things

it amazes me how over the last six weeks how busy I've been and how really it is the little things that have made me happy or life easier. Easy equals happy lately.

Like packing all the National Conference stuff into just these boxes...

I love plastic boxes, gee just going into Plastic Box (which, by the way has recently changed it's name to Storage Box) makes me happy. I love the smell and the order and all the different sizes and how they snap shut and fit together and come in different colours. That place is awesome. I'll take you there sometime.

This here is Erica and she is great.

When she popped over to get tickets from the Paeas house, our Hannie answered the door . When I asked if Erica had been by to pick them up, Hannie said "Yes, she is very tall" that's all!

Erica is the chair of the Wellington YF Club. She does a sterling job plus she walks the MAF/farmer line very competently. Plus she is one of those great people who just gets on with things and people. She is just so sweet and pleasant. Plus she does one of my super favourite things and that is sees opportunities and jumps on them. That, in my book rocks.

Other fabo people I get to work with are Nessie, that's her standing in the front in the blue jersey below. Nessie is just amazing, she runs her region very well and keeps on top of so many things. Plus she is fantastically direct and really gets stuff done.

Then there are all the Young Farmers.

Ok I can't remember most of them but as a rule they are great guys . I have discovered the more feral they look, the nicer they are. Them townie looking ones are a bit dodgey but we don't have many of them.


Then there are wee lads like this one, who are going to grow up to be Young Farmers (there is a lot of money in dairy farming Rach). Kadey Kade is too cute and has started treating me to his sweet if somewhat gooby kisses. You can't beat little kisses from little people - well you can but you get a bit more selective when it's big kisses from big people.

This is Bulls, the town on State Highway 1 that is

and every time I mention Bulls, Mags says "that's the only place where you get butter from bulls" ah...haha. What you do get from Bulls though, is fantastic pies.

The first time I had a pie from Bulls I was with a now famous politician , I won't mention his name cause I'm pretty much over him (not in any relationship way, just in a human way) and he was adamant that I have a pie from the shop along from McDonalds, which I did and he was right, they do good pie.

Having said that, I have a wee issue about what goes into pies. My favourite pie is bacon and egg but it drives me nuts when you get a bacon and egg pie and there is flipping tomato and cheese in there as well. That's false advertising! Worse is the bakery at the Hillcrest shops in Hamilton where they put frozen mixed vegetables in all their pies. What the heck?

But the pies in Bulls... well they have crispy, buttery pastry, are full to the brim with yummy non-cheesy filling, they are warm (as in not too hot) on a cold day and are heavenly to eat with the pastry flaking all over your shirt and drivers seat and how the steamy aroma rises from the big bite you've just taken - man they are awesome. Maybe that's why their pies are so nice, because they get their butter from *Bulls. Now to create a cunning plan to drive through Bulls regularly...... hmmm.

I love reading the "..a-bulls" signs they have all over the show and are quite the humorous thing.
The sign above was on the R.S.A (Returned Servicemens Association).

Funny thing after Rozza and I drove through Bulls, we got up to Desert Road and it was closed (not even snow!). We were diverted through National Park. We stopped for a loo stop in Ohakune (former home of my Nana and Poppa, and many fond memories of getting into trouble with glue.... of the PVA kind, people!) and while I was waiting for Rozza this guy came up to say hi and that he was from one of our sponsors and he would see us at Fieldays.

We thought what a nice but odd man he was.

Then about 20 minutes later we were hooning along (about as much as you can with some serious tonnage in a trailer behind you - see below) this guy was standing by his car on the side of the country road waving us over, making us somewhat nervous and then, and then! he asked us if we wanted to join him at the hot pools on the way to Turangi!

We tried fobbing him off with a "we don't have our togs" but he only said you can hire them (ikky!) but I cunningly said to Rozza that we needed to stop in Te Awamutu so needed to go up the Western Road anyway. Phew! that put a stop to him.
When we got to Fieldays, we told our secret squirrel bank guy about him and he cracked up saying that the old guy had been managed out for being a creepy old man who kept coming on to the females. Not one of the better memories of the last six weeks least there are many more to gloss over those.

* Please note the capital B on Bulls because any by product of a bull should not be spoken about in polite company and should not ever, ever be in a pie.