IOMRS97

Bottom of Royal Avenue, Onchan in the 1920s.

My parents moved back to the UK in their 80s having lived here since childhood. They were considerably better off in the UK, getting all sorts of allowances they hadn't had on the IOM plus much cheaper weekly shopping. I think it depends on your financial situation. They didn't have a lot of money so perhaps had more to gain than someone who has more cash.

I got ride of my MT landline several years ago and went with Sure 4G wi-fi router. It's reasonable most of the time but does slow down occasionally depending on traffic on the system. As long as you can receive a decent signal you are OK. I started with a router from Sure but changed it to a Huawei one later which is more dependable.

Some recent trips with Stena Line were pretty quick on the vehicle check-in. Boarding card and cabin key (if you book a cabin) issued at check-in. And that's it. Boarding card not collected or scanned, You just board. This wasn't an exception, it appears to be the norm. Same procedure at both Birkenhead and Belfast.

Cycling on the mountain makes less sense than cycling on a motorway - although I am sure there are some who will say this should be allowed too...

As someone who has dealt with hundreds of traffic accidents on the island, many of them of a serious nature and a good few fatal I can assure you that the first thing is always to protect the scene. This might be possible by signage and the positioning of vehicles but in the case of anything significant it is essential to close the road. Apart from protecting those involved and officers attending it is necessary to preserve as much as possible of the scene in order to properly investigate and determine the cause. Since tyre and scrape marks and minute pieces of debris are often involved it may be necessary to crawl along the road for some distance so as not to miss anything. Then you need to take measurements - often dozens of them. Not something to be undertaken while traffic is zooming past! Leaving this to a quieter time is not an option as I have known a second accident to occur at the same location within 24 hours and trying to distinguish one set of marks from another is no joke.

No disrespect intended but he doesn't look the sort of chap who is going to suggest any changes...

Hopefully the Isle of Man shouldn't get a mention in this as we aren't a tax haven. http://news.sky.com/story/1672075/offshore-accounts-of-world-leaders-revealed

More weather-related delays today due to strong Westerly winds. Manannan was late getting into Heysham but BMC is still off Fleetwood, travelling slowly down the channel (according to Ship AIS) perhaps waiting to get into the berth once Manannan comes out. Edited to add - I notice they soon caught up on the backlog. Good effort by the SP Co.

I'm not surprised. They have removed a non-slip 'Shellgrip' type of surface and replaced it with a smooth one. I wonder why as the corner isn't, or wasn't, a particular accident black spot.

Looks like all our troubles will soon be sorted out - a good trick if you can control the weather and clean up all the debris in the Irish Sea! http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/gawne-in-talks-with-steam-packet-after-travel-chaos-1-7206482

I use Chrome and have booked loads of sailings with the Steam Packet - seven or eight this year alone - with no problems. The only site I've had problems with recently was Easyjet which took three attempts to complete the booking as it kept insisting on using Internet Explorer (now disabled!).

From what I can see the webcams are utterly unreliable and no help at all. They might as well be removed and sold for scrap. For example, this morning we have a 'now you see it, now you don't' view of Douglas Harbour indicating that the Ben is either at Victoria Pier, or perhaps has already departed - I wonder which? Do you mean HERE ? The central image is static and never changes - look at the pages for the other cameras.... The live feed is the left hand image No, the other one. One shows the ship while the other shows an empty pier - not unusual.. Many a time you can look at the 'live'web cams at night and see a daytime image, and vice versa. Might as well not bother!

From what I can see the webcams are utterly unreliable and no help at all. They might as well be removed and sold for scrap. For example, this morning we have a 'now you see it, now you don't' view of Douglas Harbour indicating that the Ben is either at Victoria Pier, or perhaps has already departed - I wonder which?

The fact that most of the fastcraft that operated on the Irish Sea have been withdrawn and replaced by conventional ferries must mean something. But everything will very soon be sorted out - http://www.manxradio.com/newsread.aspx?id=72643