The weekend

It's been a while since I've enjoyed my weekend so much. Since COVID started a year ago it seems like life has taken a backseat to work. As a Team Leader my work has become more full on since NZ went into lockdown on the 25th March 2020. As essential workers, we posties have had a weird time. Our company, particularly our branch, has become busier since lockdown last year. As such life seems to be nothing more than a blur of getting up and going to work, then coming home to eat and sleep. It feels like all I can achieve at the moment is exist.

My wife though is still busy with her window cleaning business. But her major client is making her jump through hoops to work on site. It does make sense as that client is a large retirement village, but the hoops are all admin. She's stressed because she's got it in her head they'll ditch her. Then theres the fact that her employee left and the new one doesn't seem to want to hang around long. The stress is giving her stomach issues which she's adamant is food related. From my perspective it's not but she won't listen to me. That stresses me out because she's lost a tonne of weight - not in a literal sense though. It's been about 20kgs though so it's a lot. It scares the hell out of me to be honest.

So on Thursday night we decided to go to Fielding for the annual Fieldays event. It's aimed at farmers but it's open to all. So Friday we travel down. Little Wookie snoozed most of the way actually so it was a good trip down. He woke a little before Wanganui which was also good because it meant we could go to Kowhai Park. This allowed him to burn off some energy. After a play we carried on to Fielding.

We booked into our hotel, the Fielding Hotel. Now this thing is a super old school pub hotel. I loved it. Everything except the bedrooms gets shared. My wife isn't too keen but she's a germ nazi. I mean if there's a hint of a bug she's got out the Dettol to kill it. I swear, she's going to end up killing us. Anyway, we go to bed ready for the big day.

Waking up, we try to get Little Wookie psyched. He's never been to anything like this and he's 4 so explaining it all is beyond us. So we try and talk it up as best as we can without giving away the big surprise - digger competitions. Little Wookie is mad over excavators and garbage trucks.

So we get to the site of the Central Districts Fieldays. I never realised it but it's at the Manfield Racetrack. I've always wanted to go but never had the time or money. Already knocking off bucket list stuff. Although in fairness there wasn't any racing so I still have that. Anyway, we get into the gates after buying the tickets.

Low and behold, the first thing we get to is helicopter rides. So we go over. Another thing Little Wookie is keen on is helicopters. Where we live is in the flight path of the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter. It flies over our house on an almost daily basis, which is both cool and bad at the same time. For me, helicopters are my ultimate machine. I LOVE motorcycles but if there's one vehicle that trounces them it's helicopters. I have never been on one though. I was all set to go on a line flight in 2003 when I was working for Natural Gas. They use helicopters to check the pipeline for gas leaks. The thing that made me angry though was that before this happened I ended up moving to Upper Hutt in Wellington. My company that I worked for pulled my job from under me but offered me a job in Wellington. I needed the money and wanted to see new things so I took it. I never ended up on the helicopter flight. The rides were $65 for adults and I forget what it was for kids. The company put Little Wookie on for free so I didn't have to worry. So they flew us around the site. Sure it wasn't cheap and long but it was everything I thought a helicopter flight would be. That whooping you hear in the video is me being very reserved.

Most of the day was walking around looking at exhibits. Little Wookie and I had a scope of the Airforce helicopter that was onsite but only as a display. Kind of a let down compared to the flight we had at the start.

We watched the motocross display while we ate lunch then we went to the digger competitions. I've always loved watching a good digger driver. Like pilots, watching someone who seems to be at one with the machine is always a pleasure.

One of the highlights was being able to drive diggers. Now when I say drive, it was actually only operating the boom and bucket. When I drove it was lifting a half round fence post from two pieces of Marley pipe onto two road cones and back again. It was so much fun. Little Wookie... well see for yourself. Either way we both had a tonne of fun.

I had a blast, Little Wookie had a blast, and Mrs Wookie had a pretty good time.

Sunday was the long trip home. We stopped in Wanganui again to play at Kowhai Park but this time we rode the train. Little Wookie also got a go on these things.