It is 9-30 a.m and it is a fantastic morning. I have just returned from my walk with Skipper. This morning we ventured to the waterfall at Ronaldsway and back. In the old days and by that I mean 5 months ago. I would have gone on and sat on the steps of the footbridge and lit my pipe for half an hour before venturing on to Ballasalla. None-the-less a pipe less walk along the Silverburn in the early morning sun is still a wonderful and enriching experience. I have tried sucking a hard sweet, but believe me, a humbug is a very poor substitute for a fill of St.Bruno. Who was Bruno anyway and how the devil did he become a saint, another question for the boss when I get up there. We are now just about 3 weeks away from the smoking ban. I wonder just how many brewery ashtrays will turn up on eBay auction sites over the coming years as they become collectors items. I remember one night calling by at one of the pubs on the Barbary coast. I stood at the bar and as I pulled out my pipe I asked the landlord if there was an ashtray. “Your stood in it lad” was his reply. On another occasion when we lived in Ramsey, I recall visiting the Iron Pier for a Sunday lunchtime pint. Fumbling around on the bar for an ashtray, I located an ashtray like object. As I discharged my pipe in to this over flowing ashtray I complained to landlord Tony Kaverner that he had not emptied his ashtrays from the night before, you would have heard the howls of disbelief in Port St. Mary as my pipe ash now coated the cheese and pickles that had been laid out for the Sunday lunchtime punters.

Well when the smoking ban comes, at least I will be able to make a return to the pub myself. Having ruined my own lungs, at least I won’t be able to ruin anyone else’s. That reminds me of an epitaph my bottle of brandy a day Uncle Louis wanted on his grave stone. It went like this.

“I have drank to your health in taverns, I have drank to your health in my home.

I have drank to your health so many times, I have bloody well ruined my own.“