I am not sure any mocracy would require one to drink only stout, especially if from an exclusive list which did did not include Mackeson. I would, however, favour such a dystopian administration that did exclude water from the prescription.

watneys Cream Label stout was rather palatable back in the day. I do keep a few beers in the fridge for visitors to quaff. Myself, if I have one beer every couple of months, thats about it. I also keep a Rum bottle for medicinal purposes.

In a post this day our oul mucker Tomvart mentions The Dogs Home pub in Douglas, one wonders if our bon viveur drops in regularly for a snifter?

How the feck did you manage to emigrate to the IoM, I've been looking for a new home for months but no luck. Even Mr Varley gave up on the quest. Knowing you probably a large stuffed brown envelope was involved. :chuckle:

Dog's Home is long gone. The Chaser bar was a favourite with the racing enthusiasts. I did not frequent it as it was not accessible for my principal drinking partner but many mutual friends did and it is very well remembered. Broadly speaking it is where M&S now is. Run then by the McAleer's ran it and the family still have horses in livery. Young Robert has the Thirsty Pigeon and the Refuge popular with several of my friends although I prefer the Market (or when my young opponent is prepared to humour me with a game of Chess, outside the Bridge on a fine Friday afternoon despite the lack of Bushy's).

Many of Okell's pubs managed and otherwise that visitors may have thought inviolate have been closed. Liverpool Arms, QuarterBridge amongst them. As with elsewhere in the civilised world drink driving has finished of others, the Highlander, Lancashire and Waterfall are such.

And much as Wine has play'd the Infidel,
And robb'd me of my Robe of Honour—well,
I often wonder what the Vintners buy
One half so precious as the Goods they sell.

Well, in the case of Okells we suspect the answer is 'property'.

(Not given-up Tom, just off watch. I haven't looked at the rental market recently PM me if you are still interested. M'Lady's tip using Dean's remains valid although I guess most established agents will have access to the same stock, even if not the primary contract holder).

In my world a brown envelope has a better chance of containing adult literature than used tenners.
But as the saying goes if you move to IOM to save money you'll certainly earn it.

Yes. Modern communications are shutting down the highstreet. Before the electronic revolution one could perambulate in Soho and select, from the wide selection on display, the art and left handed literature of your leaning (although it was more straight-laced here, one newsagent was successfully prosecuted for a seaside vulgar postcard, I have in mind that those featuring mothers-in-law unfavourably were banned). About the only thing one could not do was send such by post, regardless of the envelope material. Sending money was only 'not recommended' (especially as HM provided the Postal Order) now one risks investigation for money laundering.

Varley, can you tell me what plot it is that you have lost?

Dear Corroded fishing vessel, I fear that if you are seeking to assist in the location of that which may or may not have been mislaid, then you need to peruse the land and sea scape toward the horizon and beyond.

All i see is wood and mist

My ECDIS is working fine. All the turning points are entered accurately (but perhaps, to coin a Morcambism, not necessarily in the right order).

It will be a slow day. That's what leap seconds are for (well, it's one of the reasons).

leap second?...something to do with my second Engineer?

Have you mist or missed the plot?
I lost it ages ago.

Lost many things in my life ...think i miss my Mind the most.

Lost my virginity many years ago and never reported it to the police. Under the new rules is a boy and a man the same sex and if so, why?

On a healthier note Tmax has used ships funds to buy a large number of Easter Eggs, one for everyone and two for Varley to make up for his allergy to hot cross buns. Hope mine has a crunchie in it as I always get the frigging smarties and my tongue turns green.
As Tiny Tim once should have said; Happy Easter to One and All.

Sorry chaps, it just hopped out in front…

Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy a relaxing Easter Sunday. Crews bar open all day on my tab.

Very nearly the case in our household.

Daughter returning on AA flight on Wednesday after six years working in Chicago struck birds on take off which took out the port engine and some hydraulics. Big bang, flames, noise, much vibration and, no doubt, some consternation.

Go around and fly past the tower at ~800 feet to do a 'roll by' (railway term).

Landed safely (thankfully) surrounded by fire engines etc.

All good except for the birds and the engine.

All thanks to the AA flight crew. :applause:

Geoff

Happy Easter down under, I suppose its midnight and snowing in Adelaide but youse faithfully keep the traditions of the mother country. And King Charles 3 will be arriving shortly, by nuclear submarine, one supposes?
I like the odd railway term tossed into our conversations to broaden our horizons and to make us feel inadequate which, in truth, is not that difficult. Enjoy Easter and get your daughter a BIG Easter Egg.

Sorry everyone, back on board after a little blow-out in London (IMarEST din-dins, and 6 other days foot loose with family and friends. Schoolmate I had not seen for 54 years (since he stayed a couple of days here immediately after we left) interrupted his travels to have a pint or several at Chequers.

One night, fire alarm 0200, which mug was the only one to muster? Got it in one I bet.

Anyway, after several dinners drinkies, walkies, shoppies (especially cheese) started off home on Wednesday only to have flight cancelled. Extra night at expense of Logan air taught me my choice of digs better than theirs and that cheese is better transported fridge to fridge on the day of purchase (I swear I could detect a delightful aroma, to some, when my case was finally put in the hold). Finally arrived home PM Thursday. Not quite the same trauma as YM's family - if cooking cheese or bird I find domestic gas adds fewer unpleasant flavours than does aviation paraffin.

Still managed, with help arranged by telephone to put on sausage, salmon and fizz for a dozen or so on Good Friday (if one is going to burn in hell for ignoring the Lenten bit one might as well ensure one has companions).

I hope everyone who remained on board GD had/are having a good time.

As for the question E-S poses, I suggest the answer is that it depends on how pretty the boy is.

Leave the Dali Lama out of this, he's a man of prayer and the fear is that if you are not challenged on this you will start blackguarding the poor old Pope and the ArchBish of Canterbury.

One notes with sadness that the Noble Lord has taken to buying cheese in London, why when there is a good creamery on the Island. How do I know, you ask? Well recently the Mem and myself were in Playa Blanca and in a local "Supermercado" buying some cheap wine when we came upon the cheese counter. Imagine my surprise when a lot of the hard block cheese was IOM Creamery, you could have knocked me down with a Dairylea Triangle. I can report that it was a bloody good mid range cheese, Kerrygold should be warned.
Not everything has been contaminated by the rush to FOC.

The Creamery makes an excellent Vintage Cheddar and I would not buy anything similar for import.

We have some independent cheesers (often goat which I don't like). We could do soft cheese with a re-equipment of or independent creamery but present projections suggest funding would be difficult. But we are not (I am told) big enough to do blue as the present producers fear any proximity to the clouds of Penecillium Roquefortii which would threaten the non-blue production.

Our cheese finds its way farther afield than the heathen bogs of Hibernia, it can be found in Canada and the USA. But we still do the flavoured and smoked cheese which, to me, is announcing to the world that that batch tasted as if it could only be improved by shoving it up a chimney or adding berries to it. Stick to the Vintage it's excellent.

(The Lama's boy will dine out on that for the rest of his days, probably vegetarian curry. The BBC reported that he had licked Cantuar's eyebrows. Had he done that to those of Ramsey he'd probably have got furballs).

Our cheese finds its way farther afield than the heathen bogs of Hibernia, it can be found in Canada and the USA. But we still do the flavoured and smoked cheese which, to me, is announcing to the world that that batch tasted as if it could only be improved by shoving it up a chimney or adding berries to it. Stick to the Vintage it's excellent.

I agree. It is an abomination, in Dublin, that I can't buy Wensleydale without it being adulterated with cranberries or pomegranates or other such berry. Who is to blame, Mark or Spencer, I think we should be told.

I chatted with the manager of the creamery and he rather agrees with us on adulteration however he excused himself from the act by explaining that no organisation could refuse an order for 40 tons of Leicestershire lookalike flavoured with whateverberries just because the customer is a philistine. I also took him to town on colouring, in this case it was the whey butter (the flavour of which I prefer, and it is cheaper). He explained that they did not colour the butter but as it was made from the whey used in cheese production it had some residual colour from whatever lookalike the cheese producing it had been. The post Leicester butter is often quite orange in colour.

My Scottish two quarters expects cheddar to be orange too as it is usually coloured so with carotene. My incestuously Yorkshire half expect the unadulterated stuff (which must surely be less expensive to make if for no other reason).

The Noble Lord is vying with Ben Gunn as the greatest advocate of cheese.

How could anyone who makes an annual pilgrimage for dinner, family rendezvouses and an empty case for the filling of at Paxton and Whitfield (this year including a last hour dash across town for M'lady's* Gubeen from Neal's Yard) plead not guilty to that.

* when introduced to this cheese she tried to get me to ask for gobeen!

I think the time has come to tell Lord Finchley that an electrician is not an Artisan, he is a Tradesman. An Artisan is a man or woman with a beard and dirty fingernails who makes cheese from unpasteurised milk in a lean-to with a corrugated roof.
Excuse me please as I feel a certain looseness coming on.

Then you need a packet of B isto. it Browns, thickens and seasons all in one go!

We are gods that strike down the mighty, even those of Finchley, for not employing local labour.

(We might also be a technician qualified by tested competence rather than become journeyman only by dint of surviving the many shocks a little learning would obviate. Little it is but essential it is too).

What is black, charred and hangs from the deck head?

E.S. Changing a light bulb :chuckle:

Don't shout at me Lord Varley paid me to say that :jester:

When we had our house rebuilt I watched the Electrician (???) tape joints. a few shocks and no ground wires. Its a 220v system. IE: two 110v wires making 220v. I hate Electricity. I cant see it or smell it but by heck I can feel it.
Philippine lesson learned; any wire to be treated as live even when circuit breakers are off and the mains off as well there are still parts that will light up my testing screwdriver.
Electricity is best left to the likes of Lord Varley who understand the stuff.

#1. From my limited exposure to electricity I have a niggle that simple addition falls short of the requirement.

#2. Our Noble Lord's knowledge tops out with Ohm's Law. Kirchoff's Law's is a foreign land.

As for ES changing a light bulb.........drivel, He has a Batti Walla for lamping-up. So there!

Ooooooooohhhh very posh, I think I pay you too much :chuckle::chuckle: Anyhoo Injuneers don't lower themselves to such menial tasks, one has Minions for such things :thumb:

A chap doesn't have Minions any more, one has Colleagues. Every worker must be given due respect even if they are useless twats. Bowlers all round.

Bit of a hooley in London next weekend, those of us not invited, ignore above, shall have to make good use of the extended pub hours, and get pissed.

The BBC tells me the fragrant Michelle is going, fair do's but what language does she speak? It's not one of the hundreds of dialects of Norn Irn.

Your cheque is in the post.

Fragrant??? I assume you are suffering for a severe deficiency in the olfactory region, then again I've never had any desire to get that close for a sniff :cloud:

It is quite astonishing how clearly she speaks with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek. She actually is fluent in two languages, rubbish and gibberish although the gibberish has improved since she stopped speaking at 100 MPH :chuckle:

We crew type persons will be better off avoiding the hoolie even though we have feckin' paid for it :really_mad: I will break the habit of a lifetime and stand the open bar for one and all. :pint:

Dunlop, Michelin or Pirelli I presume :chuckle::chuckle:

Steward! a case of vintage port and a case of black bush to the crew Bar, My donation towards Tmacs fine gesture. we will have a hoolie of our own aboard here.

'... She actually is fluent in two languages, rubbish and gibberish although the gibberish has improved since she stopped speaking at 100 MPH ... '

She reads the news in Melbourne.:very_sad: