BallaDoc

I agree with you - but here's the other side of the argument: "The days of the 'bobby on the beat' in Oxford are officially now a thing of the past, a top city police officer has said. Acting Inspector Neil Applegarth, head of neighbourhood policing in Oxford, has said a targeted approach is more effective at tackling crime. Mr Applegarth, who is based at St Aldates Police Station, said that modern-day efforts were directed towards more focussed police work." https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/16390238.top-oxford-cop-says-bobby-beat-thing-past/ It's the age old tension between what the public would like to see (bobbies on the beat), vs "efficiency" as defined by the bean-counters (who probably live in nice areas where the toilets all work).

There seems to be an epidemic of this sort of thing. The toilets in Ballaugh had a notice on them for a long time (possibly still do, I'm not sure) saying "toilets closed due to repeated vandalism". I can't imagine it's the same people.

Did you know that in a beehive, the queen and all of the workers are female? And that any males (drones) are ejected from the hive when they are no longer useful? And - most disturbing of all - that when a drone copulates with a queen bee, he leaves his genital organs inside the queen and the shock immediately kills him? That is 100% true because I read it in my beekeeping book.

The amazing thing for me is how Covid is pushing people into the limelight who nobody had ever heard of before. I mean, be honest, who had heard of Dr Rachel Glover before this? Or UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, who is now a regular performer on the box alongside Boris Johnson? It's like watching the tide go out and in the rock pools you find all sorts of weird blobby things with tentacles that you never even knew were things.

Yes. But I still like it here anyway. Tip when buying things online here: put your address as "Isle of Man, United Kingdom" because even though it's technically incorrect, it saves an awful lot of problems with postage and suppliers refusing to deliver "outside the UK".

Reminder: the IOM is on Gardeners' World at 9pm tonight, re. Laxey allotment. Further to my post earlier this year about my crusade to transform my own allotment from a sad looking patch of weeds into a food forest, four months later it is looking like...er...well, enough said, I'll post another photo at some point.

Spring is here, and I have taken the plunge and rented an allotment. Growing hanging baskets in my back garden was like a gateway drug. It was OK at first but after a while I just didn't get the same buzz from it and I needed more. I tried geraniums and pansies - didn't think there was any harm in it. Then I was irresistibly drawn to the hard stuff, Brussels sprouts, peas, tomatoes, that sort of thing. I couldn't walk past a garden centre without buying stuff. So now I've been thrown out by my family and told to go do it on the allotment. Above is a picture of my allotment, which at present is a sad looking patch of weeds, old tyres and other junk. Also by the look of it a few resident rabbits. This what happens to gardeners when they hit rock bottom. However, over the next six months I am planning to transform this into a food forest. Watch this space.

Yes, that particular decision shifted the centre of gravity of the town up towards the north end and contributed to the decline of Queen's Pier, which was left as a "stranded asset" in a part of the town where hardly anybody now went. Queen's Pier used to feed directly into what used to be Ramsey town centre with all the sleazy pubs, sailors' and fishermen's lodgings, boarding houses, small shops and all the things one would expect from a small port.

There was a typo in that - you meant to say "nicer" place

My initial reaction on seeing this was "WTF?" but having got over the initial shock, I am cautiously in support of it provided no public money is put at risk. I'm somewhat doubtful whether enough yachtspeople could be attracted to the marina to make it pay, but if they can, it would be a great idea. There should be more opportunities for employment in Ramsey, so you don't have so many people doing the daily commute from Ramsey to Douglas over the mountain (hands up - I am one of said commuters). It should generate a number of pubs, restaurants, yacht chandlers and that sort of thing. I would point out however that the map he is using is rather out of date: the "gas holders" shown opposite Ramsey inner harbour have long since been demolished and there is a new Haven Homes housing development on the site now.