Irene & Mike Do Pilates 1020 Where It All Began

Today a and I had our ever first Pilates class and it was one with a difference!

Some 100 years after its creator Joseph of the same name developed what he at the time labelled 'Contrology,' while interned at Knockaloe, near Peel, 1020 of us gathered to exercise in the very same part of the field where it all began.

Born in Germany in 1883 to a German mother who was a naturopath and a Greek father, a gymnast, his early years were blighted by asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever, leading to a lifetime dedicated to improving his physical strength and fitness.

He formed a belief that modern living, bad posture and inefficient breathing were at the root of poor health.

His father had introduced him to gymnastics, body building, boxing and martial arts such as jiu jitsu and by 1912 he had emigrated to United Kingdom where he became a professional boxer, circus performer and trained the Police in self defence.

Despite having worked at Scotland Yard, he was first interned at Lancaster, then Isle Of Man, one of 30,000 to be held during that period.

Boredom was the main enemy of the men in the camp but Joseph used his time to study yoga and the movement of the Manx cats and other
animals and he had a captive audience to test his techniques and regime.
He moved back to Hamburg following his release but disillusioned with the political and sociological landscape at the time, set off for New York, meeting his future wife on the sea passage. They set up a studio, soon establishing a major following within the performing arts and dance community.

Knockaloe Mooar Beg farm became the biggest detention centre in the British Isles, becoming a small town, being three miles in circumference, guarded by 4,000 old soldiers and served by 250 locals with 695 miles of barbed wire surrounding the 23 compounds.

It even had its own railway line, the 1:20 gradient being the steepest on the Island, thus requiring a mighty engine, The Caledonia.

However, looking at the area now, there is virtually no clue of what was once there but a group of enthusiastic locals has banded together to rectify the situation by turning the former Patrick School into a visitor centre and setting up a brilliant website www.knockaloe.im

The concept for the event was a both to act as publicity for Pilates, the history of Knockaloe, as well as being a fundraiser because the condition of building isn't very good and will need lots of money.

The 1020 was the number of internees held in the one quarter of the field we were in.

Michael - Submariner

These days, I'm finding it much easier to take a few pictures and wang them straight up on Facebook, with a word or two of explanation, rather than write a full blog, so I only discovered the other day that I hadn't actually completed writing this one which is not far shy of two months old!

Six weeks ago, we had a visit from our daughter and son-in-law along with the 18 month old child, Jack.

As many of our Facebook followers would have seen, this gave us the opportunity to play holidaymakers for a few days and for us to experience the visitor stay. Although I still had to cover a few breakfasts, it was very enjoyable and on our first morning, I cycled to Port Erin to join the rest of the family who'd taken the train. Incidentally, it costs just £3 to put you bicycle in the Guard's carriage should you not have the energy to retrace your tyre tracks.

On our second morning the Douglas weather was atrocious, so we were a little slow off the mark (nothing to do with the previous evening's beverage consumption. Honest!) What holidaymakers often fail to appreciate is that especially due to Snaefell Mountain (other slieaus ((Manx for mountain or fell)) can also be apportioned blame,) there can be different weather systems operating at the same time over such a small area. One of the most extreme examples of this was the huge snowstorm of March 2013 which devastated the West of the Island, leading to the loss of some 15,000 livestock despite the endeavours of the farmers and volunteers but hardly affected the East coast at all.

The forecast for that particular day was for sun in the North. Though I've encountered this phenomenon many times in the past, as the bus began the descent into Ramsey, though I had boldly informed everyone of impending blue skies, even I once again began to doubt the wisdom of my old chum Adrian Cowin, the Chief Meteorological Officer and his team at Ronaldsway!

And then! And then, although even most of Maughold was grey, we rounded the bend to see wonderful brightness over the Northern plains and up to the Point of Ayre.

After a lovely afternoon, mainly with Jack, nearly daring to splash around in the children's water feature in Mooragh Park, we took the Manx Electric Railway tram back to the gloom at Laxey before finishing the journey back to Douglas.

Another train trip, another cracking day at Ballasalla and Silverdale on the Sunday.

Our luck didn't quite run out with the weather but somehow, we had managed to mix up the date that the family was returning home, so on Tuesday, we had a spare day to ourselves. Time to re-introduce ourselves to the kayaks! It was the first time we'd been out from Peel on our own and we arrived at Fenella Beach looking forward to perhaps seeing some sharks and seals. The wind was blowing a little but it wasn't too choppy and nothing that we hadn't experienced before. I was quite annoyed at myself as I'd forgotten my spare spectacles but I like to be able to see what's going on, so I just thought I'd keep my vari-focals.

Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the cetaceous marine life or seals but there were guillemots, black backed gulls, cormorants or shags (I always forget which is which) and quite a few birds we couldn't identify.

Although we had to go through the waves and into the wind, it was quite good fun, though we didn't go quite so far as we'd intended and didn't find a beach to eat our packed lunch on. Typically as we turned back, the breeze seemed to ease off a little and we didn't quite have the push we had had been expecting.

I had my camera, which whilst it wasn't waterproof, I was pretty confident I wouldn't let it drop in the sea. Irene spotted a couple of puffins but frustratingly, every time I seemed to get in position, the boat would be pushed round and I wouldn't have quite the shot I was looking for. Although it wasn't as rough as when we paddled out, it wasn't pan flat and I just couldn't manoeuvre and hold the camera to find the picture I wanted. Therefore, I twisted right round in the kayak. Obviously, my shift in weight, combined with a bit of a wave hitting from behind meant that my balance wasn't quite what it should have been and the next thing I knew, I was upside down in the Irish Sea.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a shock, I was very wet, the first pair of expensive glasses I'd ever owned had floated off to the bottom of the briny and my non-watertight photographic apparatus was as soggy as me!

And then there was re-mounting the kayak!

I've done this many times on sit-on versions and even managed many times on the one occasion I was taken paddling on a surf-ski, so assumed this would be very easy.

After about twenty minutes trying, I discovered that I was wrong to assume this would be very easy and my arms were starting to tire somewhat from dragging myself up, only for the the thing to roll over at the last moment.

Admittedly, I was beginning to fear that I'd have to be rescued but instead opted to swim for a reasonably flat rock.

Once again, I became a little worried that I'd taken the wrong option as a few waves slammed the boat into be and the barnacles were cutting my legs but eventually, I succeeded in jumping in and sliding off my slab, though the water still in the kayak made the return journey to Fenella Beach a little wobbly to say the least!

We've since discovered how to re-enter a kayak, bought a bilge pump and soon will be booking a safety course but it is a cautionary tale and I'd certainly urge any other would be paddlers to respect the ocean a little more than I did.

Putting the boats back on the car roof was certainly tough with arms like jelly but we headed off to the Peveril for a much needed beer with only minor grazes, bruises and the pride a little dented, though still in tact.

However, life obviously had other ideas and felt my inflated ego still needed further pricking because a Dutch couple had been watching us from the Raad-ny-Foillan on the cliffs above and approached us to check that we were okay as they had been on the verge of ringing the emergency services.

You understand what I mean? The first thing you do when you fall over in the street is to look around and check if anyone has seen you and if the coast is clear, it doesn't seem to hurt half as much.

AND the picture of the puffin didn't even turn out after all that!

`

Oliver at the Gaiety Theatre

Every August, Taylorian Productions, the company founded by Matt James and the late Patrick Taylor, put on a fantastic show and this year they are especially excited to have been given the opportunity to bring us the World's favourite musical, Lionel Bart's Oliver!

Professional director, John Cumberlidge is a regular guest at the Welbeck and the quality of his collaborations with local performers has led many people to compare them with their West End counterparts.

Last year's superb 'Phantom of the Opera' was a record breaker, so it's great to have secured permission to do another modern classic so soon.

The show opens 8th August and continues until 20th nightly from 7:30 with matinées on both Saturdays @ 14:30.

Tickets cost £22.50 for adults and £20 for concessions and you can book through https://villagaiety.ticketsolve.com/shows/873555194/events?TSLVq=accf5602-2450-4614-ba17-733aee698b7e&TSLVp=c199ba09-9291-458c-99bc-9296ba9726a5&TSLVts=1470221056&TSLVc=ticketsolve&TSLVe=villagaiety&TSLVrt=Safetynet&TSLVh=4d583ea825451e677fa2bbf511a9f1cc

The cast is headed by Joe Locke and William Shooter starring as Oliver, Benjamin Heath as Fagin and Georgia Maddocks playing Nancy and although I'm sure you won't need me to outline Charles Dickens' famous story, all the information and full details are on the website: http://taylorianproductions.net/oliver!-2016.html

As one of the show's sponsors, The Welbeck Restaurant also offers a 10% discount for pre-theatre dinners (bar meals start @ 5pm, Restaurant @ 5:45) , so please book by ringing 675663 or online @ http://www.welbeckhotel.com/restaurant/

Tom Triumphs in Nobles Park

Tom Jones played in a huge marquee up at Nobles Park last night.

Photo by Murray Lambden

The big fear when you pay the price required to see an ageing megastar is that you will be presented with a faded version, not the one that shone so brightly.

Most of us have seen footage of Sinatra on his last couple of final comebacks, Paul McCartney is a more modern example and when The Who played in Peel, they cleverly used backing singers to hit the high notes.

The Voice however still possesses all his powers and spent the 90 minutes belting out his most famous songs of the last 50 years or so.

And yet, it isn't all about the singing! Such is his presence, you smile when he smiles, laugh when he laughs and cry when he cries as he appeared to when performing an old number that his wife had picked out as her favourite on his latest album. He may no longer quite have all the moves but most of us danced when he danced too.

His projected enjoyment was reflected by the crowd to produce a tremendous atmosphere.

There was a raft of musical genres from gospel songs that he used to sing in private company with Elvis, right through to his cover of the Prince hit.

The old ones were the best, though he and his musical director kept us guessing by tinkering with some of his most famous tunes, the reggae intro to 'Unusual' being a prime example.

Earlier we arrived to hear Joe Crookall (son of Peel MHK, Tim) who is now supporting other artists on their UK tours too and he certainly looks destined for future success.

Photo by Gary Weightman

The other acts were enjoyablewith out being spectacular and the whole experience was excellent, though I do concur with comments I've heard regarding the food being difficult to come by unless you fancied queueing for an hour.

As is the norm, the ladies weren't catered for well enough in the toilet department but the weather held long enough not to make the event a washout, so overall I thought it was a brilliant night and I hope the numbers add up for the promoters because I would certainly support more concerts such as this one.

Take the High Road - Glen Mona to Laxey

After quite a while without walking together, Irene & I drove to Glen Mona in Maughold on Sunday, going where we'd never been before me in my 50 years coming to and living here. It always makes me laugh when I hear people saying that they've 'Done' the Isle of Man in an afternoon.

Just by the pub, which by the way is being renovated, though I am unsure as to whether as a hostelry or a private dwelling, there is a green lane which pronounces that it leads to Snaefell Mines.

The early stages have quite a steep ascent and probably my least favourite thing about this particular route is that much of it is very rocky (though I believe that this sort of terrain is good for strengthening the muscles of the foot and ankle, providing of course you don't break it.)

Quite soon, you have views of Maughold, Cornaa and the Dhoon, as you skirt Slieau Ouyr. It bears a resemblance to Laxey Valley which you see from the Snaefell Mountain Railway and indeed eventually, there is a view of the our highest peak and as you round Slieau Ruy. Eventually, you are actually at the top of the ridge that is visible from the train.

It was here that we elected to turn back towards the sea, rather than visit the mines, mentioned earlier.

The weather wasn't the best in all honesty which added bleakness to the beauty and the only other beings that we saw on this entire path were on motorbikes, though we had quite a few sheep with their lambs as company.

The walking surface improved somewhat on this section and the vista was stunning as you could see the hills to the South with Glen Ruy, Axnfell, Agneash, Baldhoon and the village itself with Clay Head and Baldrine further along.

As usual, anything that we do doesn't quite go according to plan, which had originally been to drop down to Ballaragh and catch the bus back to whence we'd came at Bulghan Farm.

A chum of mine had made me aware of a new 'App' called 'Bus-Man' which theoretically is brilliant as a journey planner. However, it basically told me that there wasn't a bus for over an hour and that it was 4.9* miles to Glen Mona (though the trip it said would take only 2 minutes!! Must be Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes engine in it ;) ), so we decided to walk back to Laxey , take refreshment and pick up public transport from there.

It was a good job that I decided to check www.iombusandrail.info because the time shown on Bus-Man would have led to us missing the bus as it was showing as 5 minutes later than it actually was!

It has to be said that the App is only in development at the moment so hopefully any glitches will be sorted soon because it should be really handy..

To add insult to injury, there was a bus scheduled at Ballaragh when we had wanted it! Not to worry, the extra few kilometres did us no harm and we enjoyed our pint in the Mines Tavern.

The 12k (7.5 miles) total took us about 2 hours & 10 minutes.

* I think it should have read 4.9k as it was approximately 3 miles on my car odometer and although the bus was doing a fair lick, I still doubt it would take only two minutes even if it's kilometres rather than miles!

Do I Buy a Lottery Ticket or Put My House on Red Number 7?

My apologies for having been a little quiet on the blog front recently but things have been a quite hectic and I haven't had a great deal of time to experience things to write about.

Things are still pretty busy and tomorrow we say farewell to our Discovery Travel group but look forward to welcoming the School Journey Association at the weekend.

Johann, who was promoted to Head Chef after TT Week is doing a fine job and here he is pictured with Irene & me.

Unfortunately, the fantastic weather we have had since May, seems to be having a (hopefully) temporary break, so due to the bucketing rain, I brought my car to work for a change this morning.

Being a lazy so and so, I parked as close as I could to the Welbeck. Usually when I choose what looks like the easy way, things tend to backfire on me and everything goes suitably wrong to punish me for being idle but this morning, it would seem that my luck was in:

At around 7:50 this morning, one of the Ravenswood trees came down - that's my car on the right!

So I've yet to decide whether to buy a lottery ticket, contact our in house bookmaker, 'Honest Dave' and put all Irene's money on Dodgy Nag in the 5:30 at Haydock or stick our house on NO. 3 Red at the Casino.

Any advice?

Morning Paddle and Afternoon at The Creek without a Paddle

I hope you're not becoming bored with the kayak stories yet but immediately after a busy Mad Sunday breakfast, Irene & I loaded the boats once again (we're getting quicker, not to mention safer ;) ) and this time made the short journey down to Douglas Harbour once again.

With the glorious TT weather prevailing, we had decided to try and find the elusive Douglas Head seal and explore the coastline under Marine Drive from the other side.

What we hadn't realised was how choppy the water would be on the rounding the Stabit Breakwater and it was great watching Irene riding the waves!

Once again the elusive seal proved elusive (Welbeck Facebook watchers will have seen the water where the seal was in an earlier photo) but it was interesting seeing the lighthouse close up from a different angle.

By the way, if anyone wants to buy a lighthouse, it seems to be for sale. Though it would be a fabulous place to live in many ways, personally, I wouldn't fancy it on a foggy day with the horn blaring next to your ear and I imagine furniture removal would be quite challenging!

The tide was very high and it became clear that though paddling out was very easy, with the wind and waves behind us, our return would be a little more difficult, so we limited ourselves to half an hour outwards.

My GPS watch told me that despite stopping to take photographs on travelling South, we were doing kilometres at just over 9 minutes but when we turned into the breeze, they were taking 11 minutes.

It was great fun coming back into the harbour, surfing this time, though it the water was more choppy than rolling waves. We certainly knew we'd worked hard.

For the afternoon, we caught the bus to Peel which though packed with TT fans was beautiful in the sunshine.

From the Jam Perfectly Preserved

Last night Wednesday 1st June, Irene & I went to the Villa Marina to see 'From the Jam,' featuring original band member, Bruce Foxton but not Paul Weller (though apparently the latter has worked on their new album.)

I had worried that this gig wouldn't be too successful, having been moved from Saturday and being held on a TT Practice evening, so when we arrived to a near empty hall, not long before 9pm, it seemed that perhaps those fears had been realised.

We had met up, purely by chance with our friends Marie & Murray Lambden, therefore, it seemed sensible to go and buy another drink before the performance, so it was during the queuing process that without fanfare, the noise levels rose and by the time we returned to our spot by the stage the band were in full swing, belting out their old Kinks cover, David Watts and the Royal Hall was packed with a very decent crowd.

It's a long time since I've been to a concert in the UK or further afield but is it a purely 'Manx thing' that everyone just happily lets you go past with your drinks back to your place right at the front? Later on, when things really got rocking, my memories are of being literally crushed in the surge forward but despite the dancing (otherwise known as pogo or jumping up and down) becoming quite animated, I was still able to prevent Irene being jostled too much.

Unfortunately, I suspect it's more of an 'age thing,' as it seems most of the acts we get to see are groups with remnants from the past and you could perhaps describe most of the audiences similarly.

Back to the music and it was excellent as unlike the aforementioned Mr. Weller, they played all their old hits in addition to a few album tracks and only one or two songs from their new material.

Without my glasses on, I probably wouldn't have noticed that Russell Hastings wasn't the Modfather and that Bruce Foxton had aged 30 years since I last saw photograph of him.

During the encore, they really built to a crescendo and I'm sure most of the people watching thoroughly enjoyed the night.

Before you come across on holiday, it is an idea to pre-book any of the shows that you want to see, as it can usually be done online. This year's highlights include Tom Jones 26th July and Cast on Saturday but you can check out who's on at concerts in the Villa Marina and Gaiety Theatre or organised with them as ticketing agents https://www.villagaiety.com/

Kayak Capers!

Irene and I have enjoyed kayaking for some time now and we usually make sure we paddle a couple of times a week when we are away on holiday and have used www.adventurousexperiences.com more occasionally on Island.

When the opportunity presented itself on Facebook - Keirron Tastagh of the above named company was selling off some of his older stock, we spent a few days deliberating.

The main fear was spending quite a lot of money and wondering if we'd ever actually use them but the dream of the freedom to just go at any time, meandering offshore surrounded by bird life, spotting seals, dolphins and sharks won the day and the purchase was made.

Good man that he is, Keirron took us out for a couple of expeditions to make sure we were competent, one off Fenella Beach down past Contrary Head, followed by seals and the other at 7am one cold but beautiful Sunday morning from Port Erin and around Bradda Head.

When that was over, we took the kayaks home and they were ours and the dream became reality.

Reality of course, then started to bite us firmly on the backside as the weather turned rubbish, the wind blew and the boats remained on our roof garden untouched for three weeks.

Finally, the day came. Sunshine. No work. Small breeze.

Time for our maiden voyage!

The difficult part that we anticipated would be bringing them back down from the roof. I'm not sure of their exact size but I'm guessing about three metres and especially as we have quite a twisty staircase but we accomplished this quite quickly with hardly a cross word.

It was then that that infernal reality thing bared its fangs again and sunk them deep.

When we had loaded our kayaks in Port Erin with Keirron's direction and assistance, it had seemed so easy.....Well over an hour later with tempers wearing thin, we finally thought we had them secured and we were at last ready to depart!

However, it had taken so long that our initial plan of travelling to Fleshwick in the deep South West, away from the mild easterly wind was now out of the question, so we opted for Port Soderick, just a few miles South of Douglas.

As our short journey progressed, the excitement mounted and then as we drove down Kewaigue Hill, one of the kayaks appeared at the driver side window! Fortunately, it didn't come off totally! But the scale of what could have gone wrong, caused by my incompetence was huge and certainly didn't improve our faltering confidence in our adventure!

Taking still more time, we limped towards our destination, stopping every couple of hundred yards to make sure the boats weren't about go anywhere without us.

We made it! By now however, the breeze had increased a little (though hardly a gale) and Irene who has paddled out through the Pacific surf decided it was too choppy! And she needed the toilet! And there isn't a public loo at Port Soderick.

Of course, I was fuming (though of course I didn't mention the fact that I, too was desperate for relief! Of course it's easier for us chaps ;) )

Besides, there was absolutely no way I was putting in all these hours of effort not to go kayaking!

After a brief er... discussion, we headed for the public facilities at Battery Pier, Douglas.

What I haven't mentioned was that when we finally had success holding the boats in place, the roof rack straps doing said job had started to vibrate against the top of the car, so we were driving along accompanied by the most tuneless string and wind orchestra in history, barely able to hear ourselves think.

Could our great kayak caper get any worse? We had to stop the vehicle so that Irene could answer a phone call without the sawing buzz and it was our daughter Lucy, wanting us to mind Harry while she went shopping. That gave us 45 minutes!

After our mad dash to the loo, which typically for us was hampered by the fact that Irene had left her bag in the car and I hadn't mentioned that I was just as desperate as she was (Think Laurel & Hardy or Crackerjack's Peter Glazier & Don McLean and we'd have looked three times more foolish,) we headed for the Douglas Yacht Club slipway and at long last, we were afloat!

There wasn't really much that we could do though because my envisaged trip up along the marina, looking enviously at posh people's yachts had to be cancelled due to the flap being up (Douglas marina is kept flooded at all times) so it was a matter of a couple of trips around the harbour.

If there's one thing more difficult than securing a couple of kayaks to a roof rack, it's securing a couple of kayaks to a roof rack on a steep slope in the presence of our five year old grandson!

All in all, when we arrived home, our twenty five minute paddle had taken us just short of five hours.

Buy a couple of kayaks? What a wonderful idea! I now realise what we have paid all the money for in the past to others for taking us out.

The happy ending (well interim anyway) is that last Sunday, we nailed the loading and had a lovely couple of hours below Marine Drive. Hopefully, the ratio of endurance to enjoyment will alter favourably with practice.