TT fortnight has started and what better way to celebrate than to buy a motorcycle! Actually I bought it last week, haven’t seen it other than videos of it running. I am going to visit it in Cornwall soon  after the TT and have to figure out a way to get it from there to the Isle of Man .

That’s my third 70’s Honda 400 four Supersport. I had one in South Africa, one in Australia and now this one. Can’t wait to ride the TT course on it, perhaps a teeny bit slower than Michael Dunlop or Ian Hutchison!

The purists will know that it’s the wrong shade of blue but that doesn’t worry me, as long as it feels and runs like a 400 four!

There are non-stop festivals on the Island, before my English trip there was a scooter festival and the Island was overrun with Lambrettas, Vespas etc:

I had my first evening of marshalling for Saturday’s practice. I’m near the finish line this year. Something I didn’t consider when I booked the spot is that we pack up about half an hour or more later than bottom of Bray Hill that I did for the 2017 TT. It’s good that we see the bikes leaving the paddock, and get to see who wins. Glencrutchery Road is straight so it’s very fast but we don’t get the bends that I could watch in Kirkmichael (where I’ve marshalled twice for the Manx Grand Prix and Classic TT), I may go there again for some of the Classic in August.

Talking of Classics, they had Classic Racing on the Billown Circuit near Castletown over the weekend. It is insanely amazing to watch down there. The Southern 100 is held there in july. I saw a t-shirt with a quote from Guy Martin “The TT is a good warm-up for the Southern 100”. We had the day off marshalling yesterday so I went down to watch:

You can see they are just ordinary narrow roads lined with stone walls

Some spectators don’t have a very high survival instinct:

Fortunately the roar of the first bike coming through woke him up before he rolled onto the racecourse:

Yesterday morning I went for marshall refresher training and had a wonderful surprise when about 20 of us got to go up into the race control tower:

We were hosted by the Clerk of the Course, the very admired and respected Gary Thompson. Of course some of us had to have our moments of fame posing with him:

We got to see all the race control equipment and systems, plus the amazing views from the tower. It was a non-racing day so the road in front of the grandstand goes back to being a normal road, Bray Hill starts just after this section:

The spot that I’m marshalling this year is on the corner just before the trees after the paddock in the next photo. This is full of bikes waiting to come onto the course during races:

Then looking down into the paddock – on race days this is absolutely packed with people:

And you can see out to the Tower of Refuge and Douglas Head, that I’ve featured in lots of other pictures as we can see it from our flat:

Anyone can wander through and see all the teams working on their bikes, school kids get taken on outings during the week. in previous years this has been a good autograph hunting opportunity for me as many of the top riders are there for the kids. Senior Race Day is a public holiday.

Last year I felt so sorry for people who couldn’t marshal every day, as they had to go to work, now I’m one of them. However, in previous years I have felt so envious of people who live here, and now I’m one of them 🙂

 

Everyone keeps asking me about the weather so I took a few photos on the same day in Douglas. First we woke up to this view over the Bay:

Later on the mist started to lift:

I sent this next picture in to the Reader’s Pics in the local paper but turns out they used it in a story about the weather in another paper. All this fame!

Later the temperature reached a whopping 14 degrees C, leading to people stripping off and sunbathing

Then evening

and finally a night shot

You may gather I love Douglas Bay – in all weather!

My new favourite bus trip, here’s the view from the Sunday only bus that goes over the Sloc to Port Erin:

I had vowed that once spring arrived I’d start doing some more of the rural walks. Unfortunately I injured my knee a few weeks ago and have been having physio treatment from a nice young Australian man who lives in Scotland, has a locum position here for a few months, and used to live in Rockingham Road, Hamilton Hill, just around the corner from my old house in Hampton Road! The silver lining has been that he’s giving me exercises that are helping strengthen both my knees so once the sore one is completely healed I’ll be able to walk more than ever.

My leg has been good enough to do a slow 3km walk to work each day this week. A lot of it is a very pretty walk:

The views from my office windows are pretty good too:

I also managed a walk halfway down Dhoon Glen, absolutely gorgeous and I’ll definitely go back for the rest when the old knee’s better

Every time I walk I seem to have surprise encounters or discover new quirks of the island. Here is a random selection of photos and comments, in no particular order:

This black cat befriended me and followed me for about 2 kilometres up a steep hill behind Laxey. I felt awful when it seemed to get too tired and sat down, when I went back down the same way it had disappeared.

At the top of the hill was an old stone house with a lovely 2CV parked outside. I took the photo specially for friends Mike and Ruth in Herefordshire, Mike collects similar cars – don’t ask how many he has!I could also get glimpses of Snaefell Mountain as clouds came and went If you look carefully, you come across old ruins in many hidden places The next day I thought I’d finally got to Langness, not far from the airport, I’d tried to go last year but they were closing the roads for a car rally at the time – honestly, there are non-stop festivals almost every week. Turns out I went to the adjacent st Michael’s Isle instead, and still have Langness on my list of walks to do.St Michael’s Chapel, a Celtic Norse chapel built in the 12th century
Close by is Deby Fort, built in the 17th century

On the wayback I had a taste of Langness with more ruins next to the golf course but will have to go back to explore further to the end of the peninsulaI could see Port St Mary through this archway

 

I don’t actually pinch myself, as that would hurt, but I look out over Douglas Bay every day and think: I do hope I’m not going to wake up and find that this is just a dream. I have really done it. I live on the Isle of Man. 🙂

I have mixed feelings about wanting to show it off to everyone and wanting keep it a secret. Here are some photos and comments from my first few weeks:

At dawn, the jets have already started taking  off  from Liverpool

A scooting kid tries to race the horse tram along the prom (taken last summer, the horses have a rest in winter)

Onchan Head taken from Douglas Head across the bay

You may have heard about the storms, the Beast from the East and Storm Emma, that brought some extreme weather to the UK (Isle of Man is not officially in the UK but geographically we are bang in the middle). We only had light snow. I’ve been in snow before, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen it snowing. I absolutely LOVE it, I hope we have more next year.

The first few snowflakes

Just enough to make my little snowman, though it had turned to ice by now! This was the start of my fame on the Isle of Man, the picture made it into the smallest of the “Readers Pictures” in the local paper….

…..the following week, this one made it as the feature readers’ photo in the same paper! This was Emma in full swing. I cannot tell you how icy that wind was….

….Lucky for me I’d had a few good finds in the charity shops and sales. That puffy jacket has a hood that comes about 20cm in front of my face. I can’t see where I’m going, but it keeps the wind out!

You all know I love my public transport. One of my favourite trips is the 5C bus that goes up to Ramsay mostly on the TT course, except for a deviation to Peel. The day after it snowed most I missed out on the front row seats on the top of the double-decker bus to four South Africans but happily they got off in Peel and I was able to get some photos from the 9th to the 14th milestones: For some reason they haven’t landed on this page in the right order.
I may get around to sorting them out one day! Only the TT enthusiasts will notice. By the time we got to Kirk Michael the sun had been out for a while and a lot of the snow had melted. There were still a few bits on the ground at Whitehouse, my favourite marshalling spot:

It looks so different with no leaves on the trees. I think we could have done without the shade on some of those chilly MGP days last year!

And there’s our red door cottage (one of the Whitehouse Cottages) where we’ve stayed for the Classic TT/Manx Grand Prix fortnight since 2013. I shall miss staying in Kirkmichael where I met some wonderful other marshals. Also, walking up on the Slieus (hills) nearby gave me an understanding of why people call views breathtaking – I think sometimes so much pleasure to the  visual sense can make your heart stop for a split-second.

Back to Douglas 2018: Once the wind died down I joined lots of other people on the prom to inspect the storm damage. There’s a newsclip about the storm here . I must say they’re on the ball getting it cleaned and fixed up. I couldn’t believe how those huge slabs of concrete were shattered like china saucers by the sea:

The following weekend the weather was beautiful and I walked South past Douglas Head along the coastal walk. I’m cheating a bit and using some photos I took last year, that’s my Mum waking along the same path.

If you suffer from vertigo, don’t look down!

I arrived at Port Soderick , saw a sign for the station and thought what a pity it was that the steam trains don’t run in the winter – Silly Gilly, it’s spring now and the trains had started the day before. The next moment I heard the train whistle blowing …

… I followed the station signs, running, but the train was just pulling out of the station when I arrived. I waved at the guard, he stopped the train (!!!) and I hopped on. Where else in the world would they stop a train for you if you’re late?

I went for an urban walk on Friday and thought I’d drop an entry in the local paper cryptic crossword competition on the way. Look what arrived in my mailbox on Saturday morning:

…and this was in the paper the following week, Charlie is mockingly calling me a media something-or-other, I can’t remember the term.

Being St Patrick’s Day, I popped down to see my Irish friend Pauline at the Manx Legion club. She’d managed to surround herself with young leprechauns:

Note: I no longer have the streetmannracing email address, apologies to anyone whose email I may have missed!

Do you:

• Have a positive outlook and sense of fun?
• Long for beautiful places where people are friendly and honest?
• Seek out fascinating walks ?
• Love old-fashioned public transport such as horse-drawn trams, steam trains and mountain trams?
• Like to feel safe?
• Like adventures and exploration?
• Have an open-minded view of the world?
• Adapt to the world and not expect the world to adapt to you?
• Enjoy meeting people from different places and backgrounds?
• Love the quirky side of life

If you’ve said yes to most of these then you will love the Isle of Man.

Fancy a memorable holiday? Here’s a suggestion:

Organize a trip to the Isle of Man – see visitisleofman.com or your travel agent.

Book your accommodation,  somewhere on the Douglas seafront is convenient- see visitisleofman.com or your travel agent

Buy a seven-day “GO Explore”” ticket that allows travel on any public transport on the island for the whole week. This includes the horse drawn trams that go up and down the Douglas front, the steam train to Castletown, Port St Mary and Port Erin, a 120-year old tram that goes to the beautiful town of Laxey and another that goes up Snaefell Mountain as well as single and double decker buses.

Head on a different transport and walking adventure each day. Keep an eye on the weather as it is pointless going up the Mountain when it is misty – you miss the beautiful views to the 7 kingdoms! And yes, this is an island in the Irish Sea, you will need rain gear sometimes, but mostly it is very pleasant walking, and any rain usually clears.

One of the benefits of having the public transport tickets is that you don’t have to worry about getting back to a car or coach – for example, get the train to Port Erin, walk around (or over) to Port St Mary and either get the train or bus back to Douglas from there. Much of the public transport is like a journey back in time.

One of my favourite daydreams has been a fantasy about stepping back in time to another era.  Not entirely though, my vision of this world has also included a lot of the mod cons  accompanying me, like telephones and WiFi that work everywhere, and clean flushing toilets!

The Mann in my life, Charlie, first took me to the Isle of Man for the inaugural Classic TT motorcycle race in 2013. I had watched some of the TT races (that have been happening since 1907) on the telly and the sum of my knowledge of the island was that the most dangerous motorcycle race in the world was held there annually, the cats had no tails and the name of the island had a different spelling from Charlie’s surname.

My first visit to the isle of Man was a life-changing holiday for me as I fell totally absolutely and utterly in love with the island. Until that moment I really had believed that my fantasy of stepping back in time, yet taking all the mod-cons with me was an impossible dream. As a female who likes walking and exploring alone I felt safer than I had ever felt before. I was terribly jealous of everyone who lived on the island and started investigating…..

…now, after four and a half years, we have  moved to the Isle of Man. 🙂