With race week having come and gone and the kids back at school, there is a sense we are at the back end of the winter months..temptation even to look towards the warmer months ahead. Grafton definitely got it's usual buzz back this week.

On the home front CC girl rolls seamlessly from one social engagement to another. With her weekly activities punctuated by growing involvement with the Jacaranda Princess movement. I offerred to arrange some time off for a tad of schoolwork, but the little social warrier that she is, battled gamely onwards regardless.

The Big One has lost a little bark down in the 'bigger' smoke of Coffs. Dispite this, overall she has settled into a pretty busy and stimulating lifestyle. Mrs Spratty and I, while we love her dearly, remain pretty confident the headcount at the Ponderosa will remain static.

I must apologise to anyone who took my advice and went bucketing out to Rugby park last week to watch the Redmen go around. As we now know the game was forfeited and there was no football played last week. This week the Mighty River Redmen host Lismore City in two grades, and by the way they WILL front. Capt/Coach Powell ran the boys pretty hard this week at training partially to knock out any race week bugs and to make up for the week off, but mainly to ensure the first Premier Grade Minor Premiership in almost 20 years finds it's way to Grafton.The boys look sharp and very competitive opponants will ensure two great games of Rugby on Saturday at Rugby Park. Cheap at twice the price..Dont miss it!

On the work front things have bounced back to normal pretty quickly after a pretty cruisy race week, the big feature of sales is the amount of repeat and referral business being offerred to us from all over the place. We are extremely grateful as it is often a very humbling experience and usually arrives from a most unexpected scource.

Of some concern is a recent blow up in Brisbane regarding Queensland dealers registering cars in NSW. As is often the case a small concession made some time ago, got out of hand and the authorities have stepped in. If you recently bought a car in Queenland and the selling dealer up there registered it in NSW, without actually being in NSW,it may pay you to check with the RTA to ensure all is well as several anomolies have been reported due largely to the inexperience of the Queensland folks of NSW requirements.The message here is, that it is better to be safe than sorry.

Finally I need to mention Rob Connell has done a deal with Ford and Hyundai for some 2005 build stock at seriously marked down prices. Call in and and check them out, I thibk you will be pleasantly surprised.

Happy motoring,

Spratty