Wyndham 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.

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.

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 ...

... and I couldn't believe how fast they were flying past! At this part of the track, the riders were hitting around 160mph (~260kph) then accelerating up the hill, where I could see them lifting the front wheel in the distance! It certainly made for some good viewing.
I made my way up to the area where the podium place getters arrive after the race, and saw a few famous faces around, including Murray Walker (ex F1 commentator), then went and watched the podium presentation from 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.

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...
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.

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

... so I made French toast for breakfast. I also baked an apple pie, because Katie had received a load of apples and we were just discussing my love of baking...so I got inspired! We then drove all around the island, where I got to see beautiful mountains, the sea, and even Ireland and England! We ate lunch outdoors at a quaint restaurant and headed north in the afternoon to visit a waterfall and the 'Calf of Man' - the Isle of Man's neighbouring baby island! We ...

... voyage tire sur sa fin! Le 14, retour a Glasgow pour que je reparte le 15 vers Ottawa. Etant donne que Zoom airlines a fait kaput, j'ai du me racheter un autre billet et c'etait le moins cher. Heureusement que mes parents se sont ennuyes assez pour accepter de venir me chercher a 2h30 de route. Merci:) Hamish ne revient que le 19 parce qu'il doit retourner chercher son passeport (si tout se passe bien il aura alors son visa de residence permanente).

... found ourselves trapped on the boat, whilst the car passengers got off first. It was still a bit of a sickening experience as the boat was still swaying, but to the people behind us in the queue, it was a "complete and utter outrage", and they took it upon themselves to abuse ...