8.30 a.m. Another fantastic day begins. I have already walked Skipper, had breakfast, and now after a bit of blogging we shall see what the rest of the day has lined up for me. I have Fred working away in the front garden at present. He is painting the boat and lighthouse, and tidying up the wall. He is on holiday from Liverpool for a few weeks, and was at a bit of a loose end, so I have set him to work. Say hello to him should you pass by. Thank you to all who emailed me the meaning of the word blog. At least I now know what I am doing.

Tomorrow is a big day for me, as it is the day of my CT scan. This will tell me whether my chemotherapy treatment has been successful or not. Of course I won’t know the results until next Thursday when the consultant comes over from Liverpool. Well I have had my photograph taken many times in the past, but I never thought a trip to Braddan tomorrow, just to have my photograph taken, would have so much riding on it.

Yesterday I told you about the sad death of my old pal Tony Mincher. Tony’s funeral will be at the Catholic Church, Castletown at 10 a.m on Monday. Tony was a plasterer from Wolverhampton who came here probably in the early 70’s. Tony was a flamboyant character. Whenever you were with Tony, you simply never knew what was going to happen next, and to be honest it was just as well.

I recall one Sunday evening. I had gone to the Union Hotel in Castletown for a couple of pints. Whilst there, I met up with Tony who offered me a lift home. My house was only about half a mile from the Union so after we had been driving for about 10 minutes, I said Tony mate, we seem to be taking a very long route to my house? “We are on our way to the casino,” replied Tony. I was never a fan of the casino, and I didn’t gamble however, I was now heading for the casino in Tony’s Transit builders van. I don’t remember much about my unexpected night out in the casino. It was the trip back to Castletown that turned out to be very eventful. I guess this would be about the mid 70’s. Drinking and driving was socially more acceptable then than it is today. Thank goodness we have learnt our lessons. I guess it was a bit like the smoking thing really. A lot of drivers drank more than they should have, but we were just a bit more tolerant towards it, just as we were with regards to smoking. Anyway back to my story. We, that is, myself and Tony, were heading up Richmond hill in Tony’s van when we were stopped by the police. I guess our cause was not helped by Tony as he fell flat on his face as he stepped out of the van. The handbrake did not appear to be working either, and soon I began rolling backwards down Richmond Hill. In the meantime Tony had managed to mumble to the copper something about his mate in the passenger seat being blind. The next thing I knew was a very out of breath policeman had jumped in to the driver’s seat. “I have arrested Mr Mincher,” he said. “He tells me you are blind, is that true!” “Yes, that is true” I replied. With that, the policeman radioed back to his head quarters and explained that he had arrested someone for drunk driving, and that they had a blind passenger, and he was not sure what to do regarding the blind passenger. “Bring him in as well”, came the reply. I must say, I have stayed in both better and worse places than Douglas police cells. Tony proved to be a very noisy room mate, frequently calling out for cups of tea. On that particular night, I have to say, room service was not up to much. I had only gone to the Union the night before for a couple of beers, however, like I said at the start, with Tony, you just never knew what was going to happen next.

Until tomorrow then people, this is Tom Glassey with News at 8.30. On the banks of the Silverburn River.