The Welbeck Hotel Douglas

Apologies. We won't be counting this as part of our total mileage but I just wanted to see what the red line looked like on the tour map. Back to the UK and the Isle of Man for the goldfish handover to Malcolm and Isobel and my interview. Castletown reminds me of Scottish northeast towns (buildings, links, seagulls). However, there are a lot more South Africans here than ...

After staying up until about 11:30 last night packing it was time for bed...but not for long, as I was catching the ferry which left at the slighty-too-early 3:30am. Desperate to not repeat my late ferry check in antics, I had to get a taxi at 2:15am, meaning that my nights sleep came to not much more than 2 hours. Excellent.<br><br>I was happy to arrive at the terminal on time, and once on the boat I attempted to get more sleep, but didn't have much luck. I did ...

Today was more about sightseeing, as there wasn't much on in the way of racing or practices.<br><br>I decided to walk down to Douglas and along the promenade, and the weather was pretty good. A lot of the buildings along the waterfront in Douglas look very similar, and many of them are bed and breakfasts or lodges etc, which much do a roaring trade at this time of year. The population of the Isle of Man is around 75,000, but during TT week an additional 45,000 people ...

... big teams had huge trucks with awnings off the sides, and the teams were made up of about as many mechanics and other people as you'd see for touring car teams.<br><br>While walking around I saw a few of the bigger names there, such as John McGuinness (the most successful current rider), Guy Martin, Bruce Anstey (a New Zealander who I think has 6 or 7 wins to his name), Steve Plater and former World Superbike rider Aaron Slight.<br><br>It was back down to Bray Hill for the start of the ...

This morning I caught the bus to Ramsey, to watch the racing. The double decker went along a scenic drive, with some great views out over the coast, and through Laxey; home of the worlds largest functioning water wheel.<br><br>In Ramsey I made my way to Parliament Square...who's name was a tad confusing as I didn't see anything resembling parliament or a square...<br>The corner I watched the ...

Today it was over to the Isle of Man for the Tourist Trophy races, something which I've wanted to go to for a long time.<br><br>I began with an early-ish morning, then beginning the drive up to Heysham, a bit north of Liverpool, where I was to catch the Ferry. Mum and Nan were off to spend a few nights up north somewhere (which ended up being at Morecambe) and dropped me off at Heysham on ...

... a company based in Portugal which organise trips specifically for warm weather training for athletics, who said for information on 2010 bookings, check back in April. I have also e-mailed the Kenyan National Park in Nairobi inquiring about volunteer work, but I'm yet to hear back from them. Well thats all I've got so far, I'll update whenever something new happens, probably not much likely to be happening over the next few months though

... stopped talking and stared at me in shock! Ooops!! Another thing about the Manx, which might have even shocked me more, is that they share one of our 'ever-so-unique' Quebec signature dishes....the poutine!! I couldn't believe it, I thought it was ours, and only ours! Although they call their dish 'chips, cheese and gravy' (how original...haha), it's pretty much exactly the same, minus the curds. Unbelievable! I actually tasted it for lunch, and it wasn't half bad!

L'ile du Man, mon troisieme voyage dans cette petite place! Comme j'ai pratiquement tout vu ce qu'il y a a voir a l'ile du Man, nous avons profite de notre sejour chez les parents de Hamish pour surtout marcher. Une journee nous avons pris l'autobus pour aller visiter un village pittoresque (Gregneash a la genre village d'antan de Drummonville). Sinon, temps de rattraper le temps perdu avec les amis de H, passer du temps avec sa mere... et ouf ...

God what a mission to get to this rock. Who would have expected crossing the Irish sea to be vastly more complicated than anything I'd encountered crossing the deserts of Sinai. The wind and rain was as prevalent in Liverpool as it was in Manchester, although as it's more common than not you'd expect the ferry companies to have organized alternative arangements other than sending you to the other side of the country to get a ferry 7 horus later hey? No! Pah. However I ...