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SPRATTY SAYS 12th January 2008
I’m back! Thanks for having me back in your paper in 2008. It’s safe to say that a fair bit of water has gone under the bridge this year, in more ways than one. While the Clarence appears to have dodged a bullet in flood terms, sadly our thoughts are with our cousins in the Richmond Valley who did not fare so well. One useful upside of course being some of our Sydneycentric pollies becoming obliged to emerge from their concrete and glass burrows in the deep South to discover first hand a number of their rather damp constituencies.
I have decided that similarly to lunch and recess at school, which were my favourite subjects, and topics in which I excelled, I have been well designed for the Christmas break. Plentiful diversions and an excuse rich environment, providing plenty of opportunity to bulk up in the off season.
Mrs Spratty and I had a few days in the big smoke down South. We were pretty excited to get away, however with the traffic, the noise, the crowds and everything else after checking in with family, after just a couple of days we were happy to be headed home.
On the home front my offspring pretty well disappeared off the face of the earth, making occasional contact in various forms over the last few weeks. Although in the past few days CC girl appears to have become a regular at the Ponderosa, she must have runout of gas and also heard along the grapevine Mrs Spratty had cleared the wreckage of what had been her bedroom, improving the player comfort level in there immensely. I’m not sure what CC girls close personal friend count currently stands at, but in one of those rare moments of domestic parental IT access, I did notice there are several hundred unread emails which should keep her busy for a bit.
Also on the homefront the world’s luckiest cockatiel has reappeared, changing the mealtime dynamics at the Ponderosa and thankfully taking the focus off me at bathtime and bedtime.
Its been a busy period on the workfront, especially while I was out of their hair. Lots of travellers changing ‘horses’ and caravans at Grafton for a plethora of reasons. Some great offers from Ford and Hyundai doing their thing and a general shortage of cars caused by one natural disaster after another has made the ‘export’ sales go crazy. Folks from Mt Annan, Emu Plains, Central Coast, Brisbane, Taree and Port Macquarie have all found their new vehicle in Grafton. With the recent rain the level of enquiry from across the ranges has increased significantly also.
Finally there are plenty of war stories this time of the year from our guys on patrol with NRMA, but the recurring theme is carelessness. With a bit of caution and more careful preparation our guys would not make anywhere near as many friends on the side of the road.
Happy motoring (and be careful)
Spratty