Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

I have spent quite a bit of time on a tractor seat carting daffodil bulbs in the last week.

Our Case tractors have a really annoying habit of beeping in the most shrill and irritating way if you get off the seat without the handbrake on. It is sending me nuts.

This beeping might be regarded as a safety feature on a Welsh hill farm but I am in the flatest county in Britain. Would it perhaps be over dramatic to say that the beeping is ruining my life?

When I was in New Zealand I met a farmer who had a Toyota Hilux that beeped if he didn't plug his seat belt in. He got go fed up with it that one day he got out his knife and cut the seat belt in half, removed the clip and then left it plugged into the socket permanantly. You have to admire his rugged reaction to being bossed around by a car (if not his flippant attitude to road safety).

If among my imaginary readership is The Head of Annoying Additions - Case Tractors (GB), please bear in mind that this beeping was one of the main reasons that we bought a John Deere last time we changed a tractor and it is constantly reminding us to consider doing the same thing next time.