Wednesday 28 March 2012

Don't Mention Mint Sauce!





One of the best things about living on the Isle of Man is the diversity of the people you get to know and the towns and countryside all existing together in such a small space.



On Saturday night, I was lucky enough to be invited to the double retirement party of Graham & Marion Young and while I was there met a mutual friend, a recent acquaintance of mine who is a postman, star of the stage, racewalker, proud new parent and in his masses of spare time also happens to be a farmer.



Richard Creer, son of author, historian and also farmer, Hampton Creer(I'm sure like Richard, those are only a few of his talents) is pictured here behind Lucy and one of our woolly new chums.



As you can see, at the aforementioned 'Knees-up,' I managed to blag an invitation to visit the farm, so yesterday 27th March, we walked up from Douglas, probably about 3 miles from our house. The pictures are mostly of the 'Pet' lambs, that for various reasons have been separated from their mothers. The ewes struggle to cope with more than two offspring, sometimes reject little ones or perhaps do not produce enough milk to feed them.



Currently, on paternity leave from the day job, Richard has to visit his cattle and their calves every two hours and the sheep and their lambs every four hours. Whenever I start to feel a little self-pity on the occasions when the long and split shifts are thrust upon me at the Hotel, I think I would do well to remember that some vocations really do occupy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.



Our Happy seemed to hit it off well with his new pals, though I'm not quite sure who was more interested in whom.

Ballabunt is about half way through their season for lambing and calving and Richard is pictured here leading a young calf down the field. In the area, in his youth, there were six families farming the area around the Cooil and now there are only two, other establishments having been built on for the housing and industrial estates with Ballapaddag now occupied by Robinsons, the Island's main catering supplier.

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Neil Kent Collection and a Hand in Glove (Or three)

Many of my regular 'Blog' readers will recall the sad passing of long time Welbeck MGP rider, Neil Kent during practice last August.


You will probably also recall that many of my posts also mention how useless I am at getting around to doing things and therefore, it is only recently that we have passed on the donations, kindly made by guests and visitors to the Hotel.

In the picture is Michael George of the Welbeck Hotel (a.k.a. me) giving the cheque for £220 to John Kermeen of the Manx Grand Prix Helicoptor Fund. Unlike the T.T. this huge cost has to be met by donations as there is no direct Government funding.

Yesterday afternoon after work, I went for a training walk and as I am prone to Reynards Syndrome, otherwise known as 'White Finger' was attired both in cotton luminous and black woollen fingerless gloves, despite the relatively mild weather.

Of course, my hands were freezing when I set off but as I came along Marine Drive (I always seem to be on Marine Drive when I blog about things but I do go to lots of other places. Honest!) they were absolutely roasting, so I removed them.

On arriving back in Douglas, as with nearly every Monday for the last seven years, I then attended Manx Harriers Junior Racewalk Training which is held every Friday at 5.00pm and during the 'Warm up' again my fingers began to feel the chill, so as we were doing our exercises and drills, I was putting my gloves back on.

When it came to begin our session properly, I noticed I was one fingerless black glove short of a pair. After an extensive search of my pockets (my friend and former Welbeck chef, Stuart Murphy used to call me 'Which Pocket Mike') revealed no missing garment, I asked everyone to keep an eye-out as they circulated the athletics track.

Still no glove! I had to leave a little earlier than usual, so requested everyone to keep looking for it as I suspected it had been caught up with everyone's kit.

When I came to start stripping off my clothes for the next activity, I finally found it. On my right hand I had three!

Thursday 1 March 2012

It's Deja Vu All Over Again

It doesn't seem like five minutes ago since I wrote about the arrival of the Irish Racewalking Squad February 2011 but once again they are due to be with us very shortly. This year is even more exciting, as this Saturday, they are here to contest the Nihill Shield, a challenge match between the best of the Irish and English juniors. Indeed the man after whom the competition is named, Paul Nihill, Olympic Silver medallist is also going to be in attendance on the Island.
Sponsored by our rivals, The Ascot Hotel, there are races at 2k, 10k and 20k, though the highlight looks like being the 5k for which there are over 30 entrants and if you are able to attend the N.S.C. perimeter track at 11am, it is likely that you will see some future Olympians in action.
Some of our current crop of Manx youngsters, including English Schools champion, Alex Eaton (pictured) will are also in the team as the Isle of Man Athletics Association is affiliated to England Athletics. Hot favourite for the 20k will certainly be David Kidd who has won three times in previous years and is seen underneath leading the field.