Back On My Bike

It's been said on many occasions by many different people and even by myself, especially today that I'm mad and do you know what? It's true. Well it must be as I've just this minute got back in the house after completing a cycle ride of just under 3 miles. The distance wasn't a problem it was the wind chill factor as I'm sure that at the great speeds that I was zooming around Ramsey it must have been minus 50C. Maybe it wasn't that cold but my face is frozen in a grimace I can tell you and now that it has just started to thaw slightly I'm tingling all over and feel rather good. The reason for the resumption of this activity in such extreme conditions (well the sun isn't shining...well it is but it's not warm and sunny) is that after last weeks scare at the doctors and the realization that I am totally unfit something drastic needed doing for me to get back into shape. I know I'm in shape now but the shape of a Mr Blobby isn't quite what I had in mind. So with the change in the diet (God I'm missing butter and scratching already) thought that I'd ease myself back into the cycling as well. The thing is once I'm out there I really do enjoy it and it isn't that bad and after all it is doing me some good. So with any luck there will be new additions to the To Hell and Back page shortly if not sooner.........My ride out coincided with the tide being nearly at it's fullest and with it being particularily rough it made for spectacular viewing along side Queens prom, though yet again the pics I've taken just don't do it justice.......Spent the last half hour or so topping up my knowledge on geography trying to pick out if I have any new visitors to this site from new and exciting places well I'm pleased to tell you that I have......From what I can make out there are 12 new places wher people ar loging in from which I'm afraid doesn't include England as I can't zoom in far enough to get details of areas. So a big thank you to all new viewers from.......Labrador (Canada).....Indiana (USA)....Hungary....India....New Zealand (South Island)....Northern Ireland....Pakistan....Scotland (3 locations).....Switzerland and last but not least Wales. A warm welcome to you all. Please feel free to make any comments that you like as I love hearing from new as well as the regular people and I'll always make an effort to reply .

Classical Time

Starting todays ramblings on a question.....Advertising, how powerful is it? I ask this (I know I'm sad)..... only as last night at work I was in a classical mood for music and played it all night long which I'll talk about later....Anyway where was I, oh yeh advertising / classical music, they are linked honest just bear with me for a moment.......(have I spelt bear right then or should it be bare....oh I don't know)........anyway as I was saying..... I was listening to an album called classics of the millennium when Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker - Dance of the Reed Flutes came on and all I could think of was Cadburys Fruit and Nut....The reason, for those of you too young to remember or those of you who live away from the UK....Years ago and I mean many,many years ago when I was still in school (that shows you how long ago) Cadbury's did an advert for fruit and nut using the Nutcracker Suite music with lyrics sung by Frank Muir and every time I hear that same piece of music I always think of chocolate....Cadbury's Fruit & Nut...........Now that's what I call powerful advertising........40 odd years later and I can still recall......WOW....Everyones a fruit and nut case..... crazy for those Cadbury's nuts and raisins.....anyone of a certain age will know what I'm going on about I'm sure.......So as I was saying earlier, I was in a classical mood and after playing the millennium classic I then played an album by the classical guitarist John Williams which I'm afraid to say I only bought for one track which was The Harmonious Blacksmith, which I must add here is the most fantastic classical guitar track ever...that was until I've just listened to the whole album ..... and what a cracking album it is....I just can't stop playing the first track which is just fantastic and is called Fantasie No 7........Who it is composed by I've no idea so a little searching on Google is needed.....Then again why don't I just look at the sleeve notes....Which I have just done and found that it is composed by a chap called John Downland whom I've never heard of before. Certainly never in the top ten but what brilliant music.

Another Stormy Day

Thank you for all your well wishes regarding my doctors visits hopefully that will be the last I'll be seeing of him for a long time to come (except of course when I go back in two weeks time for the results of the biopsy).....Alan, yes I'm afraid that my new diet will not contain scratchings, mores the pity as I just adore them, just wish a scientist could come up with a fat free version but somehow I don't think that that will ever be possible, I wonder why that could be?....In answer to your other question regarding the wind. It seems to have blown itself out during the day and things aren't that bad at the moment as I've just came back from walking Mollie and there were two large ships moving across the bay so an improvement of sorts has been made though saying that the Ben has had a number of cancellations today which will have the effect of empty shelves in the shops yet again...........I know I'm a nosey bugger but I just had to go and have a look at the house that was damaged by the runaway dustcart yesterday. I must say that the family had a very lucky escape and came away injury free. The cart has now been moved but there is an enormous amount of damage with the whole of the front of the house being demolished and it will be a while before it will be habitable again I'm sure......Whilst I was there I also managed to take a few piccies of the rooftops of Ramsey looking towards Queens prom which I thought were a bit different from my normal pics as I've only ever been along this road once before........And now a treat courtesy of Judith.....I'm glad to say she e mailed me yesterday and attached a pop quiz in excel format. I've had a quick skeet and so far I've managed a poor 87 out of a possible 270. Judith informed me today that she and her husband have only about twenty more to get so it looks as if I've got a lot more work to get through. I've downloaded it and if you want to see how many you can get have a look here and do please post back on here as to how you are getting along.

Bin Wagon Crashes

Two main pieces of skeet hog the headlines today the first one being that I finally got to speak to the doctor and all is well. Well no it isn't well but the news I heard is the better of what could have been. The PSA test was fine, the cholesterol wasn't being a tad high. Not high enough to warrant taking tablets but high enough to be of concern and that I will have to change my diet. Oh well I can live with that I suppose and as normal there is an abundance of information available on the net so it's goodbye to butter, cream and all the nice stuff and welcome salads and rabbit food mmmmmmmmmmm......The other breaking news of today is the major incident that happened here in Ramsey early this morning when the brakes of a refuse lorry failed on a steep hill and carreered down the road, smashed through a wall then into the front of a house. Latest news has it that they can't move the lorry as if they do the house will fall down. So glad that we live on the flat here and only have to contend with mud and dust.

All Quiet On The Island Front

No piccies today...... In fact there isn't a great deal of skeet either as things have been very quiet. Well I suppose it is mid winter and apart from the weather (which I promise I'm not going to talk about today) there isn't a great deal to talk about. I suppose I could mention the most exciting thing and that was going back to work last night but that was boring. The only other thing is regarding the doctors......Went for some routine blood tests, cholesterol / PTA last Monday and was told to ring back last Thursday for the results which I forgot to do. Remembered yesterday and the receptionist looked up my records and said the doc would like to speak to me about the results and asked me for my phone number, which I gave her. By the time I left for work I hadn't received a call so was a bit mithered all night thinking what could be the problem. Anyway he rang today when I was asleep and by the time I was up and got back in contact with the surgery he had finished for the day and the next time that we will both be available will be after 4:00pm tomorrow. This will of course mean another night wondering what the problem is though G has been brill about it, as have other friends who have stated that if there was anything majorly wrong they would have informed me straight away. Thinking about it I'm sure they're right........I lied earlier when I said I hadn't got any real skeet and I only remembered when adding the latest from the papers here and here. What it was is this.....There are at present a number of film and TV productions in progress on the island and yesterday I got a phone from the local casting agency asking whether or not I was available for a shoot this Thursday. Unfortunately I had to decline as I'd just be coming off a shift. They then enquired as to if I was available all next week which again I had to decline as I really can't loose the time from work. It's a pity they can't arrange a specific time for me to be there but there again I'm not a Hollywood heart-throb who can pull the strings quite just yet. Give me time and I might get there.....in my dreams maybe........Carol thanks for the link to a great photo. It reminded me of one similar to this that I saw a while back.

Another Walk At The Ayres

Spent a relaxing morning just chatting about many different things down the boathouse whilst the Lifeboat was out on exercise. I had the chance to go out on the boat but declined as during the week, Thursday to be exact I had a small operation to have a mole removed from my side and I didn't want to do anything too strenuous as to make the stitches come undone as they did the last time I had a similar procedure which resulted in an unpleasant looking scar on my left shoulder. It made a change to sit around and just chat mosltly about boats and RNLI things as well as having a skeet at the Lifeboat on exercise through the high powered binoculars that we have in the crew room.........Back home after a beach recovery G and I decided to go out for a walk with Mollie so we went again to The Ayres this time on the west coast at the visitors centre and though it was very windy (when is it going to stop) we all had a brilliant time. Regular readers of this blog will know that one of my pet hates is dog owners not cleaning up after their dogs and I must say that there is way too much mess up here at The Ayres it's a disgrace. Anyway being responsible owners we always pick it up and drop it in a bin. Today was no different but it was a major task trying to tie the bag up as it was been blown around like nobodies business in the very strong winds. I'm sure if people were watching me they would have thought I'd gone a little crazy and that I was doing a very poor imitation of a windmill, when in fact I was trying to not let the contents fall out on me. It didn't help that Mollie being awkward deposited two lots so I ended up doing it twice, oh the joys of pet ownership. I did as normal take my camera with me and took pics of local pigs which you for some reason don't see out in fields that often as well as the usual on the beach......And now for something a little different........ piccies from someone else, though the subject is the one I keep on falling back on and that being the weather. Carol who lives in Vancouver on the western coast of Canada sent me a couple of pics which she kindly said I could post on here of the latest snowfall that they experienced last week. They were taken from her balcony and look fantastic, thanks Carol. Just wish we had snow like that as everywhere looks so nice.

Hummus Not So Good

I may have had a result with yesterdays task so it's a shame that I can't say the same today as todays task I'm afraid has ended in abject failure. I have noticed over the past week or so when reading some of G's magazines that in the food part of the mags they are pushing the healthy benefits of beans and pulses and one of the recipes caught my eye and it was this that I failed at today. Hummous or humus made from chic peas, garlic and a few other ingredients was the recipe. We eat this a lot in our house but have never before made it and all the celebrity chefs in the mags are saying how much nicer home made is against shop bought. Not in my case as the end product was decidedly unpalatable and it all ended up in the bin instead of our stomachs. Think maybe that as I used double the amounts of ingredients I may have erred and left something out and not being sure of what it was I decided to cut my losses and throw it all away. Thankfully the ingredients only came to a couple of quid so I didn't loose that much.........On the subject of food, as normal G and I went out last night to the Mitre where we had our normal few pints of Guinness but last night feeling a bit peckish G had a packet of nuts and I had my favourites which happened to be a packet of scratchings. Munching happily away on these when I had a look at the packet to see where they had been made (usualy they will have been made around Birmingham and the Midlands) to see if I knew where they had come from, in fact I did but it was other writing on the packet that made me laugh out loud. I've seen it all now, though I suppose there have been a few people sue the manufacturers after having enourmous dental bills after biting a bit too hard on these tasty morsels.