8 a.m. I’m just back from my morning walk. It is a miserable day, if you are only using the weather as a determining factor. Apart from the rain, it is an absolutely fantastic day. When I was told I had lung cancer four months ago, and I probably didn’t have very long to live, then every day became fantastic. The weather hardly had anything to do with it. Of course there were bad days when Dad died, however, at that time I was in mid treatment and in my mind, I simply told Dad to nip and put the kettle on. Well let us hope that the kettle takes a few years to boil. We will have that mug of tea in the future, but I’m not exactly ordering the coffin just yet.

Talking of coffins, I actually have a coffin in my front garden. The coffin is now in the guise of a boat. I asked Ian McKinley, the former custodian at Castle Rushen, to make me a large model of a boat for the front garden. Well the castle is pretty quiet during winter, and I figured Ian was in need of a project. To make the job easier and to save on time, McKinley, Michael Quine and John Bridson from Dalby, sneaked into Arthur Cooper the undertakers yard, in the dead of night and acquired the lid of a coffin. This coffin lid now forms the hull and structure of the boat that adorns my front garden.

Sticking with coffins and such like, I once had a bit of a run in with a corpse. Yes, it happened to me when I lived in Ramsey. Barbara and I had been on a Friday night out around the town and we were making our way home along Parliament Street. We were just strolling along at around midnight, when Barbara spotted a bloke lying flat out on the pavement. We crossed over to where the guy was lying and crouched down by his side. Everyone just continued to walk past him as if he wasn’t there. Myself and Barbara having had a few sherbets ourselves decided the man was dead and Barbara went to fetch a policeman. There were no mobile phones then, or at least they were not popular. Anyway I remained with the corpse until Barbara came back with help. I knelt down beside the body and lifted his head; I don’t know anything about first aid so the corpse was not in good hands. Anyway the face felt warm and as I lowered him back down on to the pavement, a very angry male voice let rip into the late Friday night Ramsey air. “Will you F---- off!” At that point, fortunately for me, Barbara returned with a policeman who took one look at the guy, and said. “Oh, that is just so and so, he falls down about here most Friday nights on his way home, just leave him be!”

Well, people that is it for today. Same time, same place tomorrow then.

Tom Glassey with News at 8.30, on the banks of the Silverburn River.