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.

Still More Wind

At long last I've completed the task of setting up a friends pc's on a wireless network. This was the first time I'd done anything wireless and it all seems to be working OK. Whilst in Douglas we decided to go shopping at Tesco's though we didn't hold out much hope of getting all the stuff on the list as there have been a number of sailing cancellations over the past few days. Things didn't bode well as on entering the car park there was a sign apologising for the empty shelves. This was the first time I'd seen a sign like this but to be honest I've seen the shelves a lot emptier than what they were today and we managed to get all on the list even the fresh vegetables. The drive home could have been better as the weather is still very violent to say the least. Not wanting to bore you but we've never known it as windy and the car was being blown about like nobodies business. Was amazed when we got to the top of the mountain to see a cyclist on his bike going from one side of the road to the other in the wind. Both G and I thought how irresponsible this was as he could have caused an accident any time. On coming into Ramsey the sea looked as rough as we'd ever seen it so we stopped off at the Queens Pier then drove to Mooragh Prom to get some pics of the fishing boats racing to get into the harbour for safety. As you can see I've used one of these for the new header, but the pics just do not show how fierce everything was I was struggling to stand up and couldn't stay upright for any amount of time. All I hope is that the fishing boats get in safely and that no others go out so I don't get a call in the early hours of the morning to go and rescue someone, though I'd be there like a shot if my pager went off.

Ramsey Pubs

No sooner than the request being made and I'm on the ball like a shot with my trusty camera, this time with full batteries taking pics of some of the local hostelries. Well I suppose technically I'm not quite correct saying I've done it straight away as I mentioned I'd take pics of all the local pubs here in Ramsey and do a write up about them many months ago but like a lot of things I've just never got around to doing it. New year and all that and me being as keen as ever I've started on the task though only the picture side of it, the sampling will have to come later when G is with me as I'd hate to drink alone, people might start talking. The outcome of all this hard work is a new page called.....wait for it.......wait....for....it........The Pubs of Ramsey Town....What better name could you ask for as it does what it says on the tin.......informs you about all the local pubs in Ramsey of which thankfully or unthankfully whichever way you look at it there are quite a number........Not yet complete as there are still quite a few pics to get but I will also be adding my comments and views of what I thought of the different places when I visited which should be good fun and all in the cause of good journalism and nothing at all to do with the drink..........honest...........Just had a look at the latest Top Ten of the pop charts here in the UK as this week they changed the way how sales are counted and now for the first time include downloads. A surprise entry into the top ten, as the track was released a while back was Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol......Whilst looking at the charts and not knowing many of the groups or artists I got to thinking if any of these would be around in say thirty years time. I thought of this because of something SD2 who is 15 said earlier today, which I will go into more depth in a while. Yeah I suppose Take That have done well to get back into the charts and be popular after a long break but to be there or known in thirty years time I'm not too sure as I think they may well have been forgoten unlike some of the great bands of my era...So now what was it that SD2 said to me that made me think these things?......'Pete have you by any chance Hotel California by I think a group called The Eagles'....understatement there I think.....next breath...' You haven't got anything by Fleetwood Mac have you especially a track called Landslide as it's awesome'.....I might have I replied....How funny is it that here is a fifteen year old girl requesting tracks that are all of thirty years old and she hasn't heard them from me as I only play my music on headphones when they are in so she can only have heard them from others of here own age.....Kids with great taste I think so all is not bad in the world is it?.

Ramsey Back Lanes

Not a bad day weather wise when I woke up (well it was dry at least) so I decided to take my own advice from yesterday and go for a walk through the town looking at the skyline instead of straight in front of me. It didn't last long as no sooner had I started looking up at some ornate chimney pots I fell over.....No I'm only joking there but the walk didn't last that long as I ran out of batteries on my camera. I'll certainly never make a profesional photographer as I didn't have any spares with me so the walk was curtailed somewhat. I did however get a couple of pics one of the clock that I mentioned yesterday and the other of the top of the Barclays Bank building on Parliament Street but I was also pleased that I managed another task whilst out.....See I'm getting pretty good at this multi tasking but please don't tell G as she'll get me doing even more........I was intrigued yesterday by a comment Maurice made on the guest page regarding a row of houses at the back of The Ramsey Steamship offices, so I put on my investigative journalist hat and went for a skeet. I'm presuming now that these offices which are in Parliament Street are still in the same row of houses that Maurice is thinking about, positioned between West Street and Christian Street. So I walked down West Street and yes there was a road / back entrance that I'd never walked down before which joins the two aforementioned streets and in the hope that these are what Maurice is talking about managed to take a few pics. They don't I'm afraid make fantastic viewing but at least they show Ramsey as the picture postcards don't show it.

Still Wet And Windy

I thought earlier today when I was looking at the sunrise over the Mooragh from Grove Mount what a lovely day we had in front of us. How wrong I was because as soon as I was back home the wind got up and the heavens opened and it's been like that ever since. Seems to me that the weather is the only subject I talk about on any length these days, I suppose because it's so bad. Talking of which it reminds me of the article in last weeks paper I read regarding last years weather which was a record year for both temperatures and the wet stuff. Seems as if we may have started trying to break one or maybe even two of these already this month and I'm not talking about temperatures either.......OK now onto something entirely different......I must apologise to both Maurice and Carol for not answering questions that they have asked me on my guest page. For one reason or another I've just forgot about them and Carols in particular was asked before Christmas, the 22nd December to be precise. So in answer to whether I'm a fan of Van Morrison? I couldn't say either way as I've never listened to any of his albums, though I do like a number of tracks by him and have his greatest hits album which includes Brown Eyed Girl and is certainly one of my favourite tracks on the album along with Bright Side of The Road, Moondance and Here Comes The Night which was recorded when he was with Them back in the 60s. In fact whilst writing just now I've noticed that I hadn't ripped this particular cd onto my PC so I've just done that and will later put it onto my MP3 player so I can listen to it whilst at work tonight which will give me something to look forward to.........So now to Maurices question.....You are correct in thinking that the row of houses with the cars parked in front of them is in Water Street. Funny you should have mentioned that as I'd never before known that this is in fact a car park and had never noticed the row of houses before. I'm sure that there are many more roads like this in Ramsey that I haven't walked down and I'm sure there are many things that I just haven't noticed for example the other day whilst waiting outside the Post Office I just happened to look up and saw a very ornate clock and mentioning it to G she also han't any idea that there was a clock there. I suppose the same thing goes for many of the buildings as we of course look where we are going and don't tend to look up in the air at the upper stories of these buildings. Maybe when the weather brightens up a bit I'll take my camera out and take pics of the upper parts of the buildings and unusual items.

A Walking Disaster

I sometimes think that I'm a walking disaster especially when it comes to doing DIY type jobs around the house, take this morning for instance......The roof on our house is still original, not bad when you consider that it's 107 years old. It is of slate construction and this was backed off by plaster and it's this plaster or lack of that is causing the problems. Think I may have mentioned it before that with all the building work going on at the top of the road causing vibrations it has rattled a lot of this plaster loose and small gaps have appeared and the other day when it rained heavily it was leaking quite a bit. I attempted a repair using plaster the other month but on the advice of a builder he suggested using expanding foam. What at first seemed an easy task turned into a comedy of errors. I started off easy enough then getting more confident I made the mistake of going a tad faster and in doing so some of the foam wasn't adhering to the slate and was falling off. It landed on some papers that I'd laid on the floor then some landed on my hair. In my haste to get away from the drips I then trod on the papers which of course stuck to the bottom of my shoe and in trying to get it off my shoe more foam dropped from the nozzle this time landing on my instep after leaving a trail on my jeans....URGGGHHH it was everywhere except where it should have been, though by this time I had more or less completed what I had intended so I decided that before I could do any more damage I'd retire not so gracefully and go and clean myself up. Easier said than done. It was an age before my fingers stopped sticking together and I had worn rubber gloves and only got it on my fingers when taking the gloves off. See I told you I was a walking disaster didn't I.........Thanks for all your input regarding how you log onto the site, think I'll leave things as they are for now. I did make a number of changes but didn't think they looked right so I reverted back to how it's been for a while. After having feedback regarding how long it takes my site to load because of all the pics, especially for those on a dial up connection I have started another site which isn't as large and which has a minimum of pictures so should in theory load a lot quicker. It is just one page and consists of my daily diary and any other additions I've made to other pages and you can access it here. This doesn't mean I'm stopping this site as I'm not. It was just a very quick means to an end and it only takes me a few seconds as it's only a matter of doing a very quick copy (from here) and paste job

A Walk At The Ayres

After yesterday evenings rowing fiasco I woke this morning feeling as if I'd been run over by a steam roller, I was all aches and pains and wondered for a split second why I put myself through it all at my age then thought I know the reason I do it, it's to give something back to the community and to help others and to save lives and I'm glad I do it. Never mind the pain, what I need to do is get a little fitter and get out on the water and get some rowing practice in...........Experiencing the same problems as last week regarding the overflowing bins and seeing that another trip to the tip was in order thought that I'd kill two birds with one stone so I decided to take Mollie along with me for the ride and to give her another run out at The Ayres. Whenever she is in the car she lies quietly in the boot area with the parcel tray removed (this is quite large as the car is a hatch back). As this was full of rubbish today she had to sit elsewhere. G suggested the front footwell so I put her on her lead and opened the door. (Mollie that is not G). Instead of lying on the floor she promptly jumped onto and lay down on the front passenger seat all nice and comfy and gave me that look which said ' Im OK here and I'm not going to move'. OK Mollie you win though I was rather nervous in case she started jumping about. My worries were unfounded and she had a great time even sitting up at times to look out of the windows to see where she was. Got rid of all the rubbish then it was on to The Ayres for a very windswept walk which we both thouroughly enjoyed. After the walk the other day I was expecting to see more of the dead birds but these had all disappeared. Maybe the disappearance was something to do with my telephone call to the Fisheries and Widlife department I made the day after our first walk. Back in the car with Mollie in her normal place (I don't want to spoil her) it was a nice drive back into Ramsey along the Bride road where I stopped to take a picture of a ploughed field. Strange I hear you all thinking, well yes I suppose it is but this field was a bit different as it had been ploughed or whatever in a herringbone style and looked quite different and brilliant and I thought that it would make a great photo opportinity, which really isn't that surprising as I tend to think that about most things.

Lifeboat Exercise

First exercise of the year and I'm sure one where the coxswain who on this ocasion was Rob (deputy 2nd cox) learnt a valuable lesson as I did and that was that I'm not the best rower of a boat on the crew. No, maybe I should rephrase that and say that I'm probably the worst rower of a boat that is on the crew. We were tasked to deploy the X boat and row to the pier and attach a pulley and block to one of the stanchions. We never got to the pier as I couldn't get the X boat there with Michelle and myself on board. We made four attempts but fell short on each occasion. In the end we had to abort as the rope that we were pulling (the veering line) got caught up in the propeller and was cut. Lesson learned don't ask me to row or for that matter I need a lot more practice....Think I'll go with the second......Once everything was back on board and stowed away we went in search of a man over board on a search pattern to give the navigator hands on experience. We had all the spot lights out as well as the night sight and succesfully completed this with time to spare. We then headed back to port with varying crew on the wheel practicing man over board (the man being a fender) manouveres. this completed it was back on the beach for a beach recovery then on to the yacht club for a quick pint then home.

Sunny Day....Delivering Leaflets

After all the very grey and dreary weather that we've been experiencing lately it was nice today to wake up and find brilliant sunshine and as it was so nice I just had to make the most of it. In a few weeks time, Friday 26 January to be precice the RNLI is having its major fund raising SOS day and I had leaflets and letters to deliver to different places around Ramsey. Because it was so nice I decided to do it all on foot and though it was still rather cold and a bit windy I had a great walk around the town and even went down roads I'd forgotten existed. I started off in the Town Hall and ended up at the shipyard and had a quick skeet as this is one part of the town that I very rarely get to see and it made a pleasant change and the good thing was that there did seem to be a lot of work going on which can only be good news for Ramsey.

Grey and Still Very Windy Day

No photos to brighten up todays meanderings I'm afraid as I haven't ventured very far at all mainly due to the poor weather. Even if I had taken a few pics they wouldn't have brightened up anything as everywhere today has been grey with yet more very strong winds and very heavy showers. When I did venture out I'd just stepped out of the car when the heavens opened and in the space of seconds I was soaked. Then as quick as it started it stopped, just wish work went so quick. talking of which last night was worse than I could have imagined as from the minute I got there I was fighting to stay awake. I've never felt so tired before and at one point I nearly fell off my chair then to top it all the journey home wasn't very pleasurable as upon trying to fight off the urge to go to sleep (to this end I had all four windows open with the heater up full blast on my legs) I had to contend with thick fog. This did give me the scenario of trying to drive with fog inside the car as well as out. It did the trick and I arrived home safely to pick G up and drop her off at the bus garage which has all been fenced off as the winds have damaged the roof. Hope tonight isn't as eventful anyway it's my last night at work this week as I've booked tomorrow night off as there is hopefully a Lifeboat launch during exercise.

End Of Holidays

All good things must come to an end and that means holidays and mine finishes later on this evening when I start back to work, something I'm not looking forward to but the sooner the better as I'm starting to get a little stir crazy........Still dry though we did have rain during the night and the wind has finaly blew itself out. Temperatures are however dropping and it wouldn't surprise me if we had frosts later on in the week. Seeing as it's my last day off took Mollie out for a longer run followed by a drive to the Garey just to see how high the Sulby was running at the ford.Got there and it looked too high for me to cross so I turned around and retraced my journey as I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Cold and Blustery New Years Day

A very cold and windy day but thankfully dry. Well it was dry for some of us but not for SD1 & 2 and their friends as they went into the sea at noon today for a new years day dip to raise money for charity. Must be crazy. Went for that walk that we had to cancel yesterday and were blown about at The Ayres though I must say it was rather exhilarating. Was a bit saddened though as I've never seen so many dead seabirds as I saw today. There must have been well over a dozen, mainly shags but there were also a few gulls. The only thing that I can think of is that they were caught up in the severe storms that we've been having over the past few days. These are the same storms that had the Steam Packet cancel two of yesterdays Heysham sailings and todays Seacat sailing from Liverpool. Looks like we will be having empty shelves for the next few days then.......Thank you for all your kind wishes and I hope that you all have a healthy and prosperous 2007.