Today is not a good day for travellers. An airline XL has gone bust leaving over 100,000 people stranded around the world. A fire on a train in the channel tunnel has shut down the tunnel for the foreseeable future. Thousands of people have lost their holiday in the sun and won’t get their money back. If I was to go around Castletown selling vacuums, taking people’s money, and then not turning up with the vacuums, I would now be sampling the delights of Jurby Jail, so why are these directors allowed to sell a product they haven’t got, and even continue to flog that product after the company has gone burst. They should be slung into jail and the key thrown away. This kind of thing could never happen to us when we were young. We simply didn’t go on foreign holidays. Holidays were days out rather than two weeks in the sun. There was nothing to go to the wall apart from the local charabanc company. At school in Liverpool we were all taken to New Brighton fun fair for one day a year. This was a day out to remember and we looked forward to it all year round. Volunteers from Liverpool turned up at the school in their own cars and drove around 100 blind kids to New Brighton. Police outriders would accompany the cars. The entire fairground was given over to the school for the day, every ride was free and the staff at the fairground gave their time up free as well. I can still hear Millie singing “My boy lollypop” as we clung on tight to the waltzer. Later we were all treated to fish and chips in the New Brighton hotel and every child was given a carrier bag containing sticks of New Brighton rock, fruit, sweets and small toys. After tea we were all taken off to the indoor fairground and offered exactly the same hospitality there. Then the team of volunteer drivers would take us all back to the boarding school. Normally, once our lights went out at 9o’clock we were not allowed to talk at all, however, on this one day the year, the nuns overlooked the rules and we all chatted about ghost trains, dodgem cars and big dippers deep in to the night. It was exactly the same thing at home. A day out at the White City was a very acceptable holiday. Of course our expectations back then, were not as high as they are today. None-the-less, I don’t ever recall having a miserable summer. But then, that’s nostalgia for you.

I hear on the news that the poor old Steam Packet is not happy once again. It seems one of the energy companies are going to build a wind farm which will be situated directly on the Ben My Chree’s route to Heysham. This will mean the Ben will have to go round the wind farm therefore increasing the distance between Douglas and Heysham. This of course will also mean the journey time will be longer and I guess up will go the fares. Now I don’t know very much about wind farms. All I know is if you stand down wind of Frankie Goldsmith on Port St. Mary high street on a bad day, it is not a very pleasant experience. Should you bump in to Frankie in the high street, I should cross over the road if I were you, and leave this human volcano to erupt in peace as he wends his way to the Albert.

Well folks until the next time, this is Tom Glassey, on the banks of the Silverburn River.