I woke this morning at around 4am, and of course I have been awake since. It is now 8.5am. My favourite part of the day is at the point of wakeup. It is simply just so exciting to glance at your watch and see that it is 4 or 5 a.m.; a brand new day, those first gulps of virgin air, the sound of the dawn chorus as yet unspoiled by traffic noise, aircraft, telephones, and flaming police sirens. It seems to me that every police car these days is on their way to an emergency. If that is the case, wouldn’t that make every Manx Radio news bulletin about 3 hours long? I have the greatest respect for the ambulance service, but sorry, I simply do not take the police seriously any longer. They go hurtling along our roads at great speed, yet they take an absolute age to turn up at the scene of a crime or to respond to anyone who calls them. Well that’s my beef for today. Yesterday it was the Malew commissioners, today it’s the police. Mind you if all these new byelaws passed by Malew Commissioners are implanted, the police really will be busy chasing round Ballasalla making sure no-one is singing, loitering, or dropping stink bombs.

Now as I was saying I woke early this morning, and as I lay there tossing and turning I got to thinking about some of the old boy’s that have past on. One of them that came in to mind was a chap called Possie. Every Manxman from Santon southwards will have met or heard of Possie. Unfortunately he died last year. He was a Cregneash man and spent many of his years at sea as a master mariner. He ended his working days in Port St Mary as a lobster fisherman. He then became one of the few tax exiles I have known to have left the Isle of Man. Possie it seems, was of the opinion that people who live on the coast shouldn’t have to pay anything to the inland revenue! He finished up living on the Wirral, so presumably he continued with his philosophy over there!

Dear old Aunty May has been out and bought me yet another bottle of Calvados brandy, so, I shall drink to Possie’s memory tonight. Yes tonight I hope the first gathering will take place since my little holiday over in Clatterbridge. Barbara has just returned from taking Aunty May back to the boat. An extremely heavy rain shower has just concluded, and talking of concluding, that is now what I must do. My parting tip for this week is, be careful about asking the advice of an expert. An ex is a ‘has been’, and a spert is a drip under pressure.

Tom Glassey with News where time doesn’t matter on the banks of the Silverbur River.